Vintage Season
by Worldmaker
Summary: After everyone dies in the final battle against the First Evil and its aftermath, Dawn Summers makes a deal with D'Hoffryn, granting her wish for a new chance at putting things right, and perhaps saving the lives of her family and friends in the process. Rated M for language use and later scenes of a sexual nature.
1. Not With a Bang But a Whimper

**Not With a Bang But a Whimper**

**XxxxxxX**

"_For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." – The Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:12_

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn Summers winced at the actinic glare. It only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was long enough to cause purple spots to flood her eyes. She purposefully held her eyes open. Sunnydale was dangerous enough when you knew where you are. Suddenly appearing in a random location, at a random time of day, was taking your life in your hands.

Before Dawn had a chance to do more than take a quick look around, her legs collapsed underneath her. She felt a painful drawing, as if someone or something had attached a siphon to her body and was drawing out... something. Her eyes never closed, but everything became very dim. Slowly, she became aware of a soft green glow that was leeching out of her pores. From every spot on her body a pale green light rose and gathered in the air above her.

Dawn recognized it for what it was. It was the Key, and it was leaving her. She didn't know why, but it scared her. Dawn knew that her life was schizophrenic; she knew that she was simultaneously only five years old, eighteen years old, and nearly fourteen billion years old. But now a part of that life was rushing out of her like blood from a wound.

This hadn't been part of the plan.

"N-no. No. Th-this was-wasn't part o-of th-th-the dea-deal..." She didn't have the strength to continue the thought. For a long while, Dawn just laid there, unable to move, unable to think, staring at the ceiling unblinking. Barely breathing. Her entire bodily system lay on the knife's edge. Dawn's heart struggled to beat. Dawn's lungs struggled to draw breath.

Dawn knew. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew nevertheless. In this time and place, the key was still energy. The key was still formless. And by its singular nature in the multi-verse, it was itself whole. It could not and would not tolerate being in two places at once. And so it left to join itself.

The world faded out. Everything went away. Dawn floated, like a dandelion on a breeze.

There had been a plan. It had been Willow's plan. And this possibility had never been a part of it.

**XxxxxxX**

_It had only been the three of them. Dawn, Willow, and Anya._

_They had barely escaped the collapse of Sunnydale._

_Of the others, the only one whose fate they were sure of was Andrew, who had jumped in front of a Bringer's blade to prevent Anya from being killed, and had been gutted in her place right before Anya's eyes. Of the rest there had been no sign. All the three women knew was that none of the others, not Xander, nor Giles, nor Buffy, nor Faith, nor any of the newly minted Slayers, nor even Robin Wood, had made it out of the school before the ground started collapsing and the Turok-Han started pouring out of the hole in the world._

_They'd run like thieves, trying to put Sunnydale as far behind them as possible, before the monsters got them. The school bus only made it to the sanctuary of Angel's Hyperion Hotel because Willow was using her magic to hold the thing together. They'd only been there for a few hours when first word arrived of massive numbers of "animal attacks" in LA's northern suburbs._

_The war for Earth was over almost as soon as it had begun. The First Evil, the oldest enemy of life in the cosmos, had won almost as soon as the war had started._

**XxxxxxX**

"_Do you think there's anyone left out there?" Dawn was staring out at the empty street. She hadn't seen any other human beings in days. Several blocks away, something had caught fire and was pouring smoke into the sky._

"_I don't think so. I think its just the uber-vampires. And they'll be here when the sun sets. They know where we are now. We can't hide anymore." Anya replied. Dawn just nodded. She had, unbelievably, come to accept her fate. At least this way she'd be with Buffy and her Mom instead of fighting a running war with the monsters._

"_Yeah, Dawn Patrol, gotta say, hiding was never really in the cards. I mean, think about it. I can be anywhere, and where I am, they'll come." The thing wore Xander's face. The first time it had appeared to them as one of their missing friends had been horrible; it forced them to acknowledge that their friends weren't merely missing, but were truly gone._

"_I wish the real Xander was here." Anya said this at least once a day, usually right after the First made Xander a part of its puppet show._

"_You know, at the end, he loved the Little Princess more than he loved you, don't you?" The First gestured toward Dawn. "He appreciated her youth and beauty, her vitality. You were his past, and he was beginning to see her as a possible future. There was even some kissing involved. They even came close to fucking, once. But don't worry, your pirate decided he couldn't take advantage of the Little Princess. Her virtue is intact. Physically, at least."_

_Anya glared at Dawn, who was resembling a goldfish. Dawn's mouth opened and closed repeatedly before she found her voice. "It was only once, and... and... you two were broken up, and he was totally drunk! And I..."_

_Anya smirked. "You plied him with alcohol and then took advantage of him? Why Dawn... look at daddy's little date rapist."_

_Before Dawn could respond, Willow waved them both off. "Whatever! Now is not the time for this!" She gathered the other two women close. "I had a dream last night. I saw Tara, and she gave me an idea. I know how to stop this, I think. I mean, I think it might actually work despite it being really drastic. Maybe its a bad idea, I don't know but at this point I think we're desperate enough to try anything. So what do you think?"_

_Dawn looked to Anya, who stared back, before turning to Willow. "About what?"_

"_My idea of course."_

"_Willow, you, ah, haven't told us what it is yet."_

_Willow's forehead scrunched up and her eyes lost focus. Dawn had seen it enough to know that Willow was reviewing everything she just said in her head. "Oh, yeah, sorry. We have to summon D'Hoffryn."_

_Dawn's jaw dropped. Anya was just as gobsmacked._

"_Wait, Willow... you can't be serious?" Anya shook her head. "That's stupid!"_

"_No, its smart. It'll work. Trust me."_

"_Why are we summoning the Lord of the Vengeance Demons? He's not going to help us?" Dawn was sure this was idiocy, but she wanted to know Willow's thinking._

"_Yes, he will. Trust me." Willow was digging around in her bag._

"_Right. Out of the charity of his heart. He doesn't have a heart, Willow! He's not going to help us!" Anya was almost screaming._

"_Its okay, honey, its not like that amateur boogeyman can do anything to help you." The First-as-Xander was laughing at them._

"_Shush, you!" Willow pulled her hand out of her bag, holding an object Dawn couldn't see in her fist. "So here's my plan..."_

**XxxxxxX**

_They only stopped planning when they heard the sound of heavy fists on the front door of the building in which they were taking shelter. The Turok-Han had come._

"_If we're going to do this, let's do it then. They're going to be in here with us soon." Anya shivered. She turned to the First, who had been watching their every move. "Hey, could you please pick on one of the others? You've been Xander now for hours. How about Tara for a change. No, wait, no, be Buffy. Or maybe Joyce. Be Joyce. I'm tired of you pretending to be Xander." Surprisingly, the First complied, but rather than shift from Xander to Buffy or Joyce Summers, she shifted to Halfrek._

_That was Willow's cue. She raised her hand, holding the D'Hoffryn's personal talisman high. It had been gifted to her, just after she flayed Warren Mears alive. She had hoped to never use it, but knew it was too powerful an artifact to just throw away. And as their current situation demonstrated, plans changed._

_There was smoke and a flash of light, a gout of flame, and suddenly he was there. "Behold D'Hoffryn! Lord of Arashmaha! He that turns the air to blood and reigns – ah. Miss Rosenberg! How wonderful to see you again. How have you been?"_

"_Hello, Lord D'Hoffryn. To tell you the truth, I've been better."_

_The Demon Lord nodded. "Yes, I've been hearing all sorts of rumors as to what's going on here on Earth. Pity. The human race has such... potential." The Demon Lord glanced with distaste at the First Evil, still clad in the form of his now-deceased servant demon Halfrek. "This planet has become... run down... of late." He gave his back to his supposed superior and addressed Willow as if she were a friend. "So tell me, why have you called me here? What can I do for you?"_

_Willow took a deep breath. "We want to make a deal."_

"_Do you now? Well, isn't that interesting. And why should I make a deal with you? It seems that any benefit I would accrue would be very short term, given that the Turok have just broken through the front and back doors of this building. I'll sure they'll clear out every floor and then climb upward. Won't take them long to reach the third floor."_

"_I have something you want. I'll give it to you freely and without reservation or further condition. And in exchange, you grant us a wish." Willow was trying not to show how hurried she felt. The uber-vamps were already on the staircases._

"_Ah, but I only grant wishes in the name of vengeance. Who is left alive for you to avenge yourself on, Ms. Rosenberg?"_

_Willow shook her head. "It's not for me."_

_Again D'Hoffryn shook his head. "Well, then we have a problem. I refuse to grant Anyanka a wish under any circumstances. None of my demons would."_

_And this is where Dawn came in. "It's for me. It's my wish."_

_For the first time, D'Hoffryn turned his full attention on the younger girl. "And who are... oh. Oh my, so that's what happened to it. Very interesting." D'Hoffryn gave Dawn a grin that caused the girl's spine to go into spasms. "So, you're human now. Very interesting indeed. Well, I am afraid you suffer the same problem as Ms. Rosenberg. No one left alive to avenge yourself against."_

"_But that's where you're wrong. I am wronged. My family has been taken away from me unjustly. Through the schemes of others, I'm all alone and bereft of any way to assuage my... uh..." D'Hoffryn raised an eyebrow. Willow had this entire speech written out for her to memorize. Personally, Dawn thought it sounded hokey and pretentious, like something you'd see in a bad High School play. But Willow insisted. "Oh, yeah... sorry... I am bereft of any way to assuage my rage at my oppressor. My vendetta must be fulfilled."_

"_Wow. I confess I haven't heard the formal binding ceremony in close to eight hundred years. You do know that we canceled that back in the 1870s, right?" D'Hoffryn actually chuckled. "It's entertaining, but I still have to ask. Who exactly are you planning on taking vengeance on? The nearest other humans are over five hundred miles away, and you have no idea who they are. Not only is it unlikely that they ever wronged you, its very likely that they're getting attacked just like you are? If I were to grant you a wish in the name of vengeance, just who would you be avenging yourself on?"_

_Dawn pointed. "That thing. I have been wronged by it." She pointed to the creature wearing Halfrek's face._

_The First stared at the girl, then burst out into laughter. It abruptly shifted to Rupert Giles. "You're going to wish up some vengeance on me? Me? The original source of evil? Good luck with that, you silly, stupid girl."_

"_Interesting." D'Hoffryn looked up. Everyone could hear a loud banging noise. "Oh, I see. You blockaded the stairway door. Very clever." He turned his attention back to Dawn. "So what would this hypothetical wish be?"_

_This part was important. They'd spent almost three hours just figuring out the wording. Dawn took a deep breath and glanced at her companions. Anya nodded, then looked away. Willow nodded, her eyes burning into Dawn's. The intensity of Willow's expression brought tears to Dawn's eyes. She quickly wiped at her eyes, then spoke. "I wish that I could go back to the closest point in time at which I can effectively make changes that would prevent the First Evil from conquering the world, arriving at a location in Sunnydale that will not be hazardous to my immediate arrival safe, sound, and whole..." that part covered getting there in one piece. But Dawn wasn't done. "And that to that end I would have all of the tangible, physical, intellectual, and psychological resources necessary to accomplish my mission, and that my mission be at least possible to accomplish." And that would keep D'Hoffryn from screwing her over too badly. Dawn held up a piece of paper. "We have a list. It was, uh, everything we thought we should ask for without being too pushy about it."_

_It caused D'Hoffryn to laugh. "You actually sat down and wrote out the wish? Let me guess, trying to avoid giving me any chance of subverting it, right? Very slippery of you, Agent Starling." At their expressions, D'Hoffryn rolled his eyes. "What, a guy can't go to the movies once in a while?"_

_D'Hoffryn snatched the piece of paper from her hands and seemed to study it. It not only had the full wording of the wish, but a list of the sort of things she wanted to take back with her to the past. The Demon Lord was silent. "That is some wish. Multi-part wish. Very legalistic. Very encompassing. I'd be hard pressed to twist this wish into something unpleasant. It wouldn't be impossible, mind you, but..." He handed the paper back to Dawn. "We don't usually do multi-part wishes. We're all about simplicity. And I notice that only you would be sent back in time. Your friends here would be left to the mercy of the Turoks." D'Hoffryn waved it off. "It is no matter. Say I was inclined to grant that wish. What would I get in return?"_

"_You'd get me, as a brand new vengeance demon, for eternity." Willow's words were only slightly above the level of a whisper. "You've wanted me for years. I'll be your loyal slave forever. C'mon, D'Hoffryn... still interested?"_

_D'Hoffryn was silent, considering it. No one spoke, in fact._

"_I'd be creating an entirely new timeline, you realize. It wouldn't be like you could back out of the agreement by having Ms. Summers create a grandfather paradox."_

"_Grandfather what now?" Dawn was confused._

"_That, young lady, is the problem with your generation. You do not read." For a moment, D'Hoffryn was exasperated. "The grandfather paradox is a hypothetical problem with time travel created by French science fiction author Rene Barjavel. He's an excellent read and I recommend him highly. The paradox is as follows: you go back in time, and while in the past, you kill your own grandfather before he met your grandmother. This means you were never born; if you were never born, you could never go back in time to kill your grandfather. This means that you were born, and thus went back in time to kill your grandfather." D'Hoffryn waved a hand in dismissal. The fact that changes in time creates alternate timelines – different historical lines – instead of changing the line you're one, negates the paradox. Like I said, Ms. Rosenberg won't get out of serving me by having you change things so you never summon me to make this deal."_

"_It never once occurred to me." But Willow's face told a different story. It was pretty clear that this was exactly what she was hoping._

_D'Hoffryn smiled knowingly. "No. I don't think so. This sort of major wish, against one of the greater powers? No. Not even your service as a vengeance demon is worth that much, Ms. Rosenberg. You'll have to up the ante for me to take that chance."_

_There was a loud crash from the hall. The three women looked up in a panic._

"_I..." Anya blurted out into the uncomfortable silence. Everyone looked at her. "My life. I'll voluntarily give up my life." She held up a hand when D'Hoffryn began to speak. "I know I'm about to die anyway, but that's not the point. This way, you get to kill me like you want to kill me. Long, and slow, and painful." She swallowed heavily. "It's all about the pain, right?"_

"_Anya, no!" Dawn's eyes widened in horror. "You don't..."_

"_Done!"_

_There was an actinic glare. The last thing Dawn heard was Anya screaming in pain._

**XxxxxxX**

It was only after regaining consciousness that Dawn realized that she was lying in a bathtub. The back of her head ached. A careful probing of the sore area revealed the presence of a brand new lump, about the size of her thumb. She thought for a moment about cursing D'Hoffryn's name, but then she realized that they had only wished that she'd be safe and sound upon arrival. He said nothing about collapsing afterward.

Dawn sat up and performed what Xander had called the 'standard awakening checklist' back when he taught it to her. She immediately checked her surroundings. The light coming through the window had increased, so she arrived sometime near sunrise. This was a good thing; she'd be able to start right away instead of having to take shelter in an empty building. Even in the dim lighting, she could tell she was definitely in a bathroom, and she was definitely in a tub. It was dry as a bone and clean of dried bath residue while simultaneously being dusty. Either an abandoned house or an abandoned hotel. Sunnydale always had more than its fair share of empty buildings. There was no shower curtain, though the bar did have a set of green plastic rings hanging from it. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed that the rings matched the color.

Then it hit her.

"Oh God! Willow! Anya!" She collapsed into sobs. She couldn't help it. Even though she knew the plan regarding Willow, it still hurt. And Anya... just giving herself up like that. Dawn cried, seemingly for hours. She cried until it hurt. Until her eyes had no more moisture for tears. Until she realized that she wasn't going to accomplish anything lying on the floor weeping for her lost friends.

Dawn wiped at her eyes and climbed to her feet. It was a slow and exacting process, but she felt better for taking it slow. Not only did she feel emotionally drained from the sudden onset of despair, she was in a lot of pain. Her vision wasn't blurry, and she wasn't tasting blood, but her head still hurt from its impact on the bottom of the tub just after her arrival.

She took a look at the room she was in. There was a row of four light sockets above a wide, wall-to-wall mirror, none of which had bulbs. The mirror itself was set looking over a pair of sinks. There was an empty toilet paper roller in the wall next to the commode, and a towel rack. Everything was clean, but dingy. And on the counter, between the sinks, sat a bright purple backpack.

Dawn stared at it, then stared at it some more. Then it registered "Right. Things I might need." She picked the backpack up and then stopped, catching a look at herself in the mirror. She looked... younger, somehow. Not like the nineteen year old she was when D'Hoffryn moved her here. More like she was sixteen or seventeen, maybe. "Wonder what the heck that's about. Why am I younger?"

Dawn continued to waste time, staring at herself. Eventually she shook herself out of it and moved on. She stepped out of the bathroom into the shadowy hallway. The house was silent. Not even the hum of electricity in the background. A quick look revealed three bedrooms and the bathroom she was just in, plus a staircase leading down. The downstairs was a large main room, with a kitchen/dining area to one side, a downstairs bathroom, and two smaller bedrooms. It took Dawn a while to realize that she recognized the arrangement: it was identical to the Revello Drive house in Sunnydale, where she lived with her Mom and Buffy.

"Wait, am I back home again?" Dawn couldn't tell. The paint job and the paneling all looked the same, but there was no way to tell if she was back in that house, or merely in a similar house. "One way to find out," she muttered to herself. Still a little hesitant, Dawn stepped out onto the front porch. She immediately recognized where she was. It was Revello Drive, all right, but this wasn't the house she used to live in. That house was painted white and had blue trim. This house was painted a pale yellow, and had dark brown trim. Otherwise, though, the houses looked identical.

Other than the house itself and its different color scheme, the first thing Dawn noticed was the realtor sign in the front yard. It featured a smiling woman in a gold jacket, and a small placard that read "SOLD!" in bright blue letters. According to the small mailbox on the wall next to the door, this was 1625 Revello Drive. Her memory told her that this house had been empty for most of the time that she, Buffy, and her Mom had lived here. There had been a family who moved in about a year before Sunnydale ate itself. She remembered seeing a kid, playing in the front yard. But that was it.

"Oh shit." Dawn blanched. There was a car in the driveway. It was canary yellow, and a convertible. For a moment, she wondered how she could have missed someone else being here. But there hadn't been anyone inside, and no one seemed to be wandering around in the yard. Quickly, she figured out a quick plan; just a few ideas of what she'd say if the home owner suddenly appeared and demanded that she explain her presence.

Perched on the porch swing, Dawn took a moment to look around. It was a pleasant morning. The sun was still pretty low in the sky, which was clear as a crystal pool. It was warm, but not hot yet. She could hear children playing, and someone not too far away was mowing their grass. It was all familiar and heartbreaking.

Nothing for it.

Dawn finally bit the bullet and opened the backpack. There was a leather bound book, several file folders filled with various papers, a set of keys on a ring, a girl's clasp-wallet, and some sort of mobile phone. One by one, she took the items out of the backpack and set them onto the swing beside her.

The phone was something called a "Motorola StarTac." She couldn't remember ever seeing a phone like that before, but she knew it was larger than the ones that would come later. The wallet was red leather, and was typically oversized, just like the wallets that all women carried in their purses. A quick check revealed close to $200 in various denominations, while the other held various cards: a driver's license, three credit cards (Amex, Visa, and MasterCard), a bank card which was also carried the MasterCard logo, a social security card, even a library card to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Library.

The fob on the key ring was blue, and was embossed with the Mercedes-Benz insignia. Dawn's head abruptly shot up to stare at the car. _You don't think..._ The car had the Mercedes logo as well. Looking back at the keys, one had tape around it that read "front door", the other "back door". The last was quite obviously a car key.

"And for a car, D'Hoffryn gives me a Mercedes. Wow." Dawn shook her head. She pocketed the keys and moved on. The book was a diary of some sort. Dawn opened it and read the first page. There were two lists. The first was easy enough to understand. The Master, Angelus, Mayor Richard Wilkins, Adam and the Initiative, Glory, those three assholes, and finally, the First Evil. These were the upcoming Big Bads, obviously. The second list read: Radica Games; Metal Management; Trans-World Entertainment; Reliability, Incorporated; Arterial Vascular Engineering; The Spire Corporation; Jackson Hewitt; and finally MindSpring Enterprises. Dawn had no idea what it meant.

At least, not until she turned the page. The next page also had lists, but these two contained what she recognized as the names of sports teams, accompanied by a year: 1998 Denver Broncos; 1999 Denver Broncos; 2000 Tennessee Titans, and so on. It took Dawn a moment to realize the two lists were, respectively, the winners of the next twelve Superbowls and World Series. "Oh, I get it!"

She closed the book and looked at the cover, It was just reddish brown leather, but it looked cool, and it had that fantastic leather smell. "This is my Gray's Sports Almanac!" An emergency fallback when she needed money. She continued to flip through the book. Lists. Lots of lists. More lists of what she now realized were company names. "Investment opportunities, maybe? What's this... a technical diagram? What, am I supposed to invent this thing?" She closed the book again. It was a gold mine.

She put the book down and picked up the first folder. "Aha. My life as a time traveler." The first page birth certificate. Apparently Dawn Marie Summers was born in Los Angeles California on October 11, 1981 to Lucas Summers and Anne MacElvoy. She'd never heard of either of them. Dawn set the birth certificate aside. The next page had some biographical details regarding the new 'rents. Lucas worked as a senior associate with a law firm in LA, McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak. Her "mother" was an executive at Twentieth Century Fox.

Dawn turned to the next page and immediately amended all references to her new parents to indicate a past tense. Apparently one Dawn Marie Summers, daughter of Lucas and Anne, had been declared an emancipated minor due to the accidental deaths of her brand spanking new parents in an airplane crash. "Wow. Lucas and Anne, I barely knew you and now you're gone." It came our more sardonically than it sounded in her head.

And that lead to her inheritance. "I have an inheritance?" Dawn quickly shuffled through the papers until she found a bank statement. The inheritance seemed to be a combination of life insurance payouts for her new, dead parents, the contents of their checking and savings accounts, a couple of IRAs, 401k payouts, plus the final tally after her father's stock portfolio was liquidated, the sale of her parents homes and cars, plus some other things. Dawn spent a good ten minutes simply staring at the number on the bottom of the page. She apparently had almost two million dollars in the bank.

Two million dollars.

Two.

Million.

Dollars.

Dawn wondered, just for a moment, why she would need information like who to bet on for the next ten superbowls if she was sitting on that kind of money already. In the end, she chalked it up to better safe than sorry. So, in her new life she was a trust fund orphan. Dawn sat there, staring vaguely in the direction of the house across the street, not really seeing it. Eventually, she realized what was going on and turned her attention back to the papers.

The inheritance was apparently in a trust fund. She couldn't understand all of the legalese, but the upshot – if she was reading it correctly – was that she could dip into the interest, but couldn't touch the principle until she turned eighteen. From the glimpse of herself in the mirror, she knew that she was younger than she had been before D'Hoffryn transported her in time, but she had no idea by how many years.

Buffy. She had no idea what she was going to do when she met Buffy. What was she going to say to her? Say to any of them, for that matter. Was she still Buffy's sister? She couldn't remember any relatives of Hank Summers named Lucas or Anne. Mom... Joyce... wrapping her head around the fact that in the here-and-now, Joyce wasn't her mom was giving Dawn the shakes. It was going to be difficult. Dawn knew that she was going to be inserting herself into the lives of Buffy and Xander and Willow, and not as "Buffy's little sister", either. If she succeeded in becoming a part of that group, it was going to be inevitable that she'd encounter her mom. Encounter Joyce Summers. Encounter her mom, who died so early, and so horrifically, and whose death left an indelible mark upon her.

Dawn wasn't sure she could handle watching her die a second time, even if she wasn't her "Mom" in the here-and-now.

And how was she going to react when the "real" Dawn Summers showed up in a couple of years? That question made Dawn's head ache. She knew the Monks of Dagon inserted false memories of "Dawn Summers" into everybody's minds, but to her – to Dawn herself – those memories were real. They were the only memories she had; how would the Monks manipulation affect a Dawn Summers who'd already been in place?

Dawn turned back to the papers, trying to shove her fears and worries to the side. It seemed that the same law law firm Lucas Summers had worked at in Los Angeles was overseeing everything for her. There were a few more papers, namely school enrollment, the bank statement, a list of phone numbers to call if she needed anything that included her lawyers, the judge who handled her emancipation, a child psychologist, a couple of teachers, and a doctor.

The first paper in the second folder was a deed to a house. A deed to 1625 Revello Drive.

She owned this house. It was hers. Well... actually from what Dawn could tell, technically her trust fund owned it and she merely lived there. She flipped through the next few papers. Some tax papers, some papers detailing repair work done before the sale was finalized. Just past the page that detailed her health insurance, she found a title of ownership for the car. So the canary yellow Mercedes was also owned by the trust fund on her behalf.

So, she had a house, she had a car, and she had enough money to live on. She was back in Sunnydale. The question of the hour was which precise moment had she come back to. Her driver's license was issued in – she took a quick look – 1996, but how far back had that been? A year? Two years?

The cell phone warbled, driving Dawn forcefully out of her reverie. She picked the device up as if it were a snake about to bite her. Who the hell could possibly know she was here? Why would anyone call her just out of the blue like this? She opened the phone as if it was about to explode, pressed the receive button, and said, "Hello?"

"Ms. Summers? Dawn? Good morning. This is Leland McKenzie. Did I wake you?" At the mention of the name, an image popped into her head of an older, balding man with glasses and an easy smile. She had no idea where this picture came from, but given the general weirdness level of the moment, she accepted it.

McKenzie. One of her attorneys. She decided to play it totally cool. "No, Mr. McKenzie, I've been awake for a little while. What can I do for you?"

The man's voice had a tinny quality to it that was characteristic of the early model cell phones. "I wanted to let you know that I got a call from the movers. They'll be at your new house in Sunnydale in about three hours with your things. That should give you plenty of time to get some breakfast, check out of your hotel, and drive over to meet them."

"Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. McKenzie. That's great news." Dawn looked up and down the street, as if a moving truck was going to magically appear out of nowhere.

"No problem. Is there anything we can help you with this morning?"

"Not that I can think of." Dawn shook her head despite the fact that she was talking on a phone. "But if I think of anything, I'll call."

"Excellent. Excellent. I'll try and look in on you from time to time. Dawn, I want you to know, your dad was not only a business associate but a friend. If you have any problems living on your own..." McKenzie left the rest of the statement hang. "I know getting away from Los Angeles and starting over is important to you, but I'm still nervous about you living two counties away."

"I know, but I have to do this." Dawn swallowed, suddenly choked up. "I'll be fine. And if I'm not, I'll call. Thanks again for helping me with this."

"You're welcome, young lady. Be good. I'll talk to you later."

She disconnected and closed the phone. Three hours before her furniture and other things arrived. Breakfast sounded like a plan. She thought she might drive past her mom's house, see what was up there. And definitely find out what the date was. Dawn smirked. "Time to try out the new wheels." She palmed the car keys, shoved everything else back into the bag, and headed for the car.

**XxxxxxX**

"There they are." Dawn watched the three kids walking down the sidewalk together in the driver's side wing mirror of her car. They were obviously on the way to Willow's home. Kids. Right, they were all three of them her same age now. In fact, in the here-and-now she was actually older than both Buffy and Willow, by a few months apiece. She looked back down at the newspaper she picked up along with a Diet Coke at the convenience store. It had given her today's date: February 10th, 1997.

On her way out of the neighborhood, Dawn had driven past her old house. It had been empty, with a for sale sign on the lawn. There wasn't even a SOLD banner. At least not yet. She recognized that the timing of her arrival had been way, way convenient. In about three weeks, Joyce Summers, accompanied by her daughter Buffy, would be moving in to the house on Revello Drive. Joyce would then take a few days to get situated, get the furniture set up, and enroll Buffy at Sunnydale High. So she had that long, three weeks, to get herself set up in the house and begin to be "seen" around town, make herself known at school as the new girl before Buffy usurped that position, and find an in with the Scoobies-to-Be.

Dawn thought about it for a moment. was already enrolled in school and would officially be starting as a sophomore at Sunnydale High in two days. School would be out, and summer break started in June. She could use the summer to get closer to the gang as Buffy left to visit Hank. She didn't want to take Buffy's place. Just find a place of her own. _Which brings me to Mr. Rupert Giles._ Dawn would have the opportunity to meet the man before Buffy did. Should she reveal that she knew about the Slayers, the Watchers, and vampires? Might be easier, in some ways, if he knew she knew ahead of time.

Dawn carefully kept her attention on the newspaper as they passed where she was parked. She gave the trio a quick glance and noticed Xander looking at her as he walked by. Xander gave Jesse a quick nudge, then tilted his head in her direction. Jesse, who apparently had never even heard of subtlety, stared at her for a few seconds, then stared at her car. Willow noticed, gave Dawn a quick glance, smiled and nodded, as if in greeting. Then the three were on their way.

Dawn flashed a bright smile when Xander took another look over his shoulder at her. _And that is my way in._ Dawn thought to herself. For a moment, she felt a certain sadness, knowing that if she did this, Xander would never know Anya as anything but Anyanka the vengeance demon. Again, Dawn shoved her emotional response away. _Nothing I can do about it. At least I won't just be using him. I do lov – I care for him already._

Dawn glanced at her watch. It was almost time to meet the movers. She cranked the car's engine, put it into gear, and headed to her new home. She had an idea about how to open the door to getting to know the Scoobies. If she was lucky, it might just work.

"All right, Sunnydale. There's a new sheriff in town, and she's going to be making some changes." Her Clint Eastwood was appalling, but it was just cheesy enough to give her a good laugh. Laughing was a good thing.

**XxxxxxX**

It had taken the rest of the afternoon to get the house set up. Despite the fact that she wasted a lot of time – Dawn had no idea what was going to show up in the moving truck, and some of it came as a surprise – the movers were great guys; they were endlessly patient with her when it came to where to put everything, especially when she was obviously making it up as she went along.

All the major furniture was in place. The living room now contained a couch, a love seat, two recliners, several bookcases, several boxes marked "books" and "living room sundries", and a wide-screen television. Taking a look at that monster, she decided then and there to buy a flat-screen television as soon as someone invented them. Upstairs her bedroom was set up for sleeping, as was one of the spare bedrooms. Both had boxes marked "clothes" and "linens." The kitchen had the boxes marked "dishes" and "pots", while downstairs, in the basement, there was a home gym, a reach in freezer, a second refrigerator, some camping gear, and the laundry appliances. All in all, the house had begun to look like a home.

Dawn was certain that she'd rattle around this place like a single pea in a tin can.

By the time the movers were done, it was only two in the afternoon. Dawn hadn't felt like unpacking everything immediately, so she dodged the job to go to the grocery store. At first, the thrill of being able to buy whatever she wanted filled Dawn's head with visions of cabinets-full of cookies and potato chips, a freezer full of ice cream, and a refrigerator filled with soda and candy. Eventually common sense won out.

Her mom, – Joyce, not her mom; she hated it, but for the sake of her mission felt she had to start thinking of her mom as Joyce – had shown her how to cook some things, but it had never really interested her like it had interested Buffy, but she was determined to try because she had no other option except to eat out all the time. A sudden memory of Buffy cooking, and Dawn was smiling again. It was a strange thing. Despite her cheerful enthusiasm when it came to the subject, Buffy and cooking were normally non-mixy things. Lord knew she tried hard, but it never seemed to work out. But then there was Thanksgiving. When it came to the traditional foods enjoyed on that holiday, Buffy was like Jacques Pepin and Emeril Lagasse and Wolfgang Puck rolled up into a suddenly and oddly competent package. As long as it was turkey, and stuffing, and giblet gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, Buffy was a kitchen genius. Couldn't boil pasta without causing the water to catch on fire, but she made a mean Thanksgiving feast.

Again, she pushed the sadness aside. There was no room for it anymore. She was going to have to act normally around her old family. And how that word burned her every time she thought about it.

Amazed at having spent nearly five hundred dollars in groceries, Dawn brought her purchases home and spent the next half hour putting them away. She unpacked a box of dishes and a box of silverware, but left the rest of the boxes where they were. She did the same in the living room, unpacking a box that held a stereo system, and one that held a video game system (she vaguely remembered the Super NES and had never heard of most of the games), plus a couple of pictures of a man and a woman smiling at the camera with a girl who was obviously a younger version of Dawn. "Mom and Dad. At least now I know what you two looked like."

Dawn then went upstairs and unpacked her toiletries and her bath supplies, then went hunting for towels, clothing, and bed clothes. Making the king-sized bed irritated her because of how difficult it was; the mattress was huge and heavy and feather-filled and was completely uncooperative. But eventually Dawn had sheets and pillow cases and a comforter in place. They were grown-up sheets, with a blue and white pattern of small circles against a pale blue background.

She rewarded herself for all the unpacking effort with a half-pint of Ben and Jerry's Funky Munky while she watched TV in her bedroom. _The X-Files _hadn't jumped the shark yet, apparently, and the syndicated re-runs were still only from Season One, when the show was triumphant and cool and not stupid and confusing.

It occurred to her that she was lonely. Dawn thought about it for a long while before deciding what the hell. "The Bronze it is. Who says I have to wait for school to start." She started undressing as she headed toward the bathroom, dropping her clothes where they lay. Ten minutes later, Dawn was digging through her recently unpacked clothes and found a rust-colored dress and matching shoes. It was the kind of outfit that Cordelia Chase might have worn, but it felt right, especially after she added a black belt.

As Dawn began to brush her hair, thankful that she'd managed to not get it too wet in the shower, she started imagining various scenarios to introduce herself to the Scoobies.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn parked her car in as well-lit an area as possible and queued up in line for the Bronze. To her surprise, the person in line just in front of her was Jonathan Levinson. The boy gave Dawn the once over, lingering just a little too long on her chest, then sheepishly looked away. Dawn smirked at him, and he gave a guilty grin back to her and shrugged.

"Sorry." There wasn't much else he could say at being caught ogling her.

"It's fine. Just don't make it a habit, okay?"

"Oh, uh, right. Um. A habit? Do you go to Sunnydale?" He seemed shocked that she was acknowledging he was alive.

"I'm starting in two days. Just moved here. " Dawn shrugged, then she pointed past his shoulder. "Line's moving."

"Oh, right. Um. Right. Sorry." He moved forward and didn't try to continue their conversation. To Dawn's great surprise, she felt slightly disappointed that he would just drop it like that.

Soon, Dawn was inside. She took a quick look around. It wasn't as jam-packed as she knew it could be, but it was busy enough. There wasn't a band, but music was pouring from the jukebox near the bar. She recognize Cordelia holding court in one corner, surrounded by her coterie of brainless sycophants. Over there were a couple of the jocks Dawn recognized from Buffy's class – soon to be her class, including the big blonde one that Xander had once described to her, the gay one. Barry? Maybe. And there, at the bar, were Willow, Xander, and their friend, the one who had been turned into a vampire. The one Xander had to stake in order to save Cordelia. They were standing at the bar, talking and laughing between themselves, nursing their sodas and occasionally munching on the pretzels the bartender gave out for free according to the theory that free salty snacks caused people to order more drinks.

"They look so innocent." For a moment, Dawn was struck by the tragedy of it all. She sighed, audibly. "And I'm here to wreck it."

Nothing for it. Dawn moved through the crowd toward the bar, and artfully inserted herself next to Xander. "Could I have a Diet Coke, please?" She made the request just loud enough for it to be overheard by the other three. Dawn watched the bartender pour the drink and carefully didn't react as she watched Xander, Willow, and Jesse take notice of her out of the corner of her eye.

Dawn took a sip of her drink, and glanced over at Xander. She gave him a friendly grin and nodded. "I know you, don't I?" Dawn took another sip of her soda, and as she did so she gave Xander an appraising glance that was subtle only in comparison to a blow from a hammer to the head. When she was done, she made her grin even wider, showing teeth this time.

"Uh... I don't think so." Xander's cheeks pinked, and Dawn realized that he was blushing. "I would remember meeting you, I'm sure."

Willow watched the exchange. "You do look sorta familiar, though."

Dawn smiled at the other girl. Everyone was friends here, after all. "Oh wait... I know. I remember where I've seen you before. I was trying to figure out directions and you three walked by." Another sip of the soda. "You gave me a wave and a nod. I thought it was very friendly of you."

"Oh yeah!" Willow extended a hand. "You were in the yellow car. I'm Willow! This is Jesse and that's Xander."

"Dawn. Dawn Summers. Nice to meet you." Dawn gave Willow's hand a quick, polite shake and nodded to the two boys in turn and took another sip of her soda and looked around. She was trying to not seem too interested. Just interested enough.

"I don't think we've seen you around. Do you go to Philomena Prep?" Jesse asked. He was ogling her in the same way Jonathan had.

"Nope." Dawn shook her head. "Is that a High School?"

"That would be no, then." Jesse smiled at her. "Its a Catholic private school."

"Nope. No Catholic school for me. I just moved here. I'm going to be starting at Sunnydale High in a couple of days. I'm a sophomore."

"Oh, well that's where we go. We go there!" Xander blurted out. He was smiling at her, and Dawn was only happy to return his attention.

"Great! Which year?"

Willow frowned for a moment at the interaction, but then brightened. "We're all sophomores too."

"Hey, that's fantastic! Maybe we'll share some classes." Dawn picked up her glass and moved to put herself between Willow and Xander. She hoped it looked like she was moving in to get closer to Willow, rather than she was intentionally separating the two. She put a friendly hand on Willow's arm and gave it a friendly squeeze. "I don't know anyone here, and I'd love to start school with a friendly face nearby."

Willow shrugged and nodded. "Sure. But, uh, are you certain you want to, uh, associate with us? We're, uh..." Willow blushed and stared at the bar.

"What Willow's trying to choke out is, um, well." Xander shrugged. "To be honest if you hang out with us, you're not going to win any points with the popular crowd."

"Its not like we're lepers or anything." Jesse was quick to reassure her. "We're just, sort of like, um. How should we describe ourselves, Xander?"

"Are these losers bothering you?"

Dawn jumped, having not noticed the arrival of "Queen C" and her followers. She turned in her bar stool and met Cordelia's eyes. _Now to put those lessons Cordy gave me to use._ "I'm sorry, did you say something? I'm afraid I wasn't paying attention."

Cordelia smirked at Willow, Jesse, and Xander in turn, then visibly ignored them by putting her full attention to Dawn. Xander seemed to shrug it off, while Willow looked like she was trying to crawl into her own navel.

Jesse didn't seem to notice. "Hi, Cordelia!" He was up and standing rather close to the object of his attention.

Cordelia flashed him a look. "As if, dweeb. I asked if these three losers were bothering you."

"Not at all. The only losers bothering me are the johnny-come-latelies." Several of the cordettes gasped, as did Willow. Cordelia's mouth hung open for a moment, as if wondering how what just happened happened. Dawn smirked, causing Cordelia's eyes to narrow.

"Well, its your choice to commit social suicide by hanging with two morons and the girl voted most likely to die a virgin. Though seeing how you chose a Donna Karan knock-off to come to a crappy club like this one, maybe..."

"Actually, this is a Yohji Yamamoto original, not a knock-off, and not Donna Karan. But then, I wouldn't expect someone wearing a cheap imitation of Christian Louboutin to know that. Yohji is trending this year. Louboutin, not so much."

Cordelia's eyes dipped to her own clothing. "This is Versace!"

"Sure it is." Dawn rolled her eyes, making sure that her agreement was merely sarcasm. "I don't know what sidewalk street vendor you bought that from, honey, but I'm fairly sure they lied to you. Now, as scintillating as this conversation has been, I'm bored. I'm going back to talking to my friends now. Buh-bye!" Dawn gave Cordelia her back. Willow was staring at Dawn out of the corner of her eye with something akin to hero worship. Xander was smiling; the entire exchange had apparently amused him greatly. And Jesse was ignoring Dawn in favor of trying to hit on Cordelia. The boy was never going to learn, Dawn knew. It was sort of pathetic. Cordelia spumed behind her, but Dawn ignored it. She felt, more than heard, the so-called "Queen of Sunnydale High" take her minions and leave.

Going on a whim, Dawn grabbed one of Willow's hands and gave it a friendly squeeze. "Hey, look at me for a second." Willow hesitated, but finally met Dawn's gaze. "I want you to remember something, okay? Here it is, and its important: no one can make you feel bad about yourself with you first giving them permission. So don't give them permission. You seem like a nice person, and you sound smart. All you need to do is figure out who you want to be and then be that person. God, I sound like a Hallmark Card. Sorry."

"No! No, you're fine! I know, I need to do all those things." Willow shrugged. "I'm just, you know, not all that good at standing up for myself. I tend to do the opposite and let people walk all over me. I'm no good at doing the don't tread on me, thing."

"Well its a good thing you met me, then. Because neither am I." At that, Willow giggled. Dawn nodded. "Its true. I've been a victim of bullies all my life. Its only really recently I decided I didn't want to be that person anymore."

Dawn patted Willow on the hand, then turned to Xander. "So, you want to dance? I love this song and I absolutely must dance to it!" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the dance floor. Dawn actually had no idea what the song was or who sang it, but she felt like dancing and was wanting to encourage Xander to want to like her anyway, so it seemed an ideal plan. She caught one line – I_ say tell me the truth but you don't dare, You say love is a hell you cannot bear_ – and could tell it was a woman singing, but after that all that was important was it gave her an excuse to dance with Xander.

So she did just that. And if she danced a little closer than she expected, and touched him more than he expected, that was okay too.

**XxxxxxX**

"I had a great time tonight. Thanks." Dawn dug in her purse for her car keys. "And since I owe you, I insist that you let me drive you home, okay?" She saw Willow about to object and waggled her finger. "No argument, Missy. You're riding home in the height of automotive style, luxury, and safety." She nudged Xander, who had been her constant dance partner for the last several hours, on the shoulder. "Right, Xan?"

"Uh, yeah. Right! Absolutely" Xander nodded enthusiastically, which for some reason gave Jesse the giggles.

Dawn returned his support with a huge smile. Xander had started out confused by her attention, but had finally twigged to the fact that she was coming on to him. She was careful to not overdo it, and there was still quite a way to go before this – whatever it was – turned into anything solid, but it was a start. "You guys are going to have to give me directions, okay?" She opened up her bag and began rooting around in earnest.

A strange feeling overtook her, a not-quite-nausea that made her regret ordering the fried onion bloom thing. She had just shrugged it off as too much greasy food when she heard the voice. "What do we have here, boys. Someone ordered take-out." Dawn shifted her hand from her keys to the stake hidden in the bottom of her purse.

"Oh shit." Dawn hissed. It was Dawn's own luck, or lack of it. Four vampires, all of them in game face already. A quick glance at her friends told her that Willow was already terrified, Jesse was confused, and Xander was on the verge of going into protective mode. Quickly, she pulled her hand out of her purse, bringing the stake with her. "Xander, take my purse. I want you and Willow and Jesse to get in my car and start it up. Leave the driver's side door unlocked for me, okay?"

"Now don't be like that. The party's only getting started!" The leader of the pack of vamps was putting as much sarcasm and faux-excitement as she could into it.

Dawn put herself in between the vampires and her friends, stake in hand. "Go, Xander." She hissed. That was the last of the attention she could spend on the kids; she had to pay attention to the approaching vampires. She recognized the leader. How could she not. She'd done the research, in the then-and-there. "So... Darla. I thought you'd be taller."

The vampire paused in her approach. "You know who I am?"

"I know who you are." Dawn took up the best defensive stance she could. She was stalling for time. "You're Darla Fenchurch. Born sometime in October of 1630 in Whitechapel, London. Sired by Heinrich Nest in 1664. Sire of Liam Moran, better known as Angelus. Along with William Pratt and Lady Drusilla Ballaster, you were one quarter of the Scourge of Europe."

Darla resumed walking. She was closing on the four teenagers with measured precision. "Well, well. Someone's done her homework. Get her boys." The three male vampires rushed at Dawn while Darla hung back.

The first of them swung a meaty fist at Dawn's head. Instinctively, she ducked under the punch and spun, bringing her fist around and planting the stake right in the sweet-spot. Dawn had withdrawn the stake and had moved before he puffed into dust. She kicked out with her left leg, once, twice, three times, catching the next vampire in the knee, the stomach, the throat. He began to collapse but before he had done more than begin to curl in on himself, Dawn had plunged the stake through his back and into his heart. The third vamp caught Dawn's ankle as she tried to kick him in the chest. Without pausing, Dawn used him as a fulcrum point. She jumped into the air and spun, using the vampire to support her weight while she brought her other heel around and across his face. The force of the blow knocked him to the ground as Dawn herself made a perfect, cat-like three point landing. She rammed the stake through his ribs without looking; her eyes were on Darla, who was now standing motionless, in shock.

The two women continued to stare at each other. Finally, Darla backed away into the shadows. Just before she disappeared out of sight, she called _**"**__This isn't over, Slayer!"_

Dawn rose from her crouch. "Slayer? Why would she think I was a..." The fight replayed itself in slow motion in her head, and she realized the entire thing had lasted maybe five seconds. Three vampires in five seconds. She'd never been able to fight more than one, and even then it was a long, drawn-out process involving a lot of running. And crossbows. She looked down at her hands, at the hand holding the stake.

Dawn couldn't quite control it when they began to shake. "Slayer," she whispered to herself.

"Dawn."

What the hell had D'Hoffryn done to her? She couldn't be the Slayer, could she? If she was the Slayer – was she _the_ Slayer, or merely _a _Slayer?

"Dawn, are you okay?"

_If Buffy wasn't the Slayer..._ Dawn's thoughts were a mess. _If I've taken her place... what does that mean for Buffy when she and Mom get here? If she's not the Slayer and I am – Oh God, can I do this without her help? She'd be as normal as Xander._ That thought brought her up short. _No, not Xander. Xander might be normal, but he's also one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. Buffy without the Slayer is Cordelia._

"Hey, Dawn?" She jumped when a hand touched her shoulder. She whirled, ready to do battle again, but it was Xander. Only Xander. He and Jesse and Willow were all standing there, staring.

"Whoa! Just me, Dawn! Just me!" There was honest concern in his eyes, as well as the fear and confusion. Without knowing she was going to do it, Dawn leapt into Xander's arms and hugged him to her. "Hey, you okay? You're shaking. It's okay. They're... they're um, they're gone."

Dawn nodded into his shoulder. "Just give me a second, okay, Xan?" She clung to him long enough for him to start gently stroking the back of her head. It was nice, but not was not the time. She pulled away from him with regret.

"Look, um... I know this was weird and all..."

"You think? You, uh, you stabbed those guys and made them go poof." Jesse's voice was high-pitched and near panic. "That's not normal."

"Yeah!" Willow's voice was even shakier. "That was about as far from normal as you can get. What was that?"

"Dawn?" Xander hadn't completely let her go yet, and she was actually grateful for it.

"Right. I should explain. Okay. Um... not here. Let's, um, let's get you guys home, okay? I'll try and explain everything on the way." Dawn motioned toward her car. "I guess you guys deserve to know the truth about what's going on in this town." A sudden thought occurred to her. "Wait, better yet... I know where we can go. I'm sure once we explain things he'll help us."

"He? He who?" Willow asked. Dawn could see the girl was on the edge of panicking.

"A friend. Well, sort of a friend." Dawn paused. "Okay, he hasn't met me yet. But I'm sure he'll help us. He's British. Its like, against the law for him to be rude or something."

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in associatin with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television. All I own is the idea and the words. The song "Sleep to Dream" (the song that is playing when Dawn pulls Xander onto the dance floor) was written and performed by Fiona Apple, and is the property of Work Records (Apple's own label) in conjuction with Columbia Records.

**Author's Note the Second:** No, I am not abandoning _Origin Story_. I was taking a shower and an idea for a new story popped into my head, and it being there prevented me from doing anything meaningful with _Origin Story_ until I got it out of my head and into words. I'm hoping to work on both stories simultaneously.

**Author's Note the Third:**I know that _Peggy Sue_ stories are trite, but every once in a while you have to write one. I wrote one for _Harry Potter_, so now I'm writing one for _Buffy._ Hopefully you'll enjoy it.


	2. Welcome to Fright Night! For Real

**Welcome to Fright Night! For Real.**

**XxxxxxX**

"_Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth" – **Sherlock Holmes **in "The Sign of the Four" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_

**XxxxxxX**

"So vampires are demons?" Xander was in the 'shotgun' seat. He was belted in, but had turned so he could look at Dawn as she drove and tried to explain the situation. "I thought they were just, you know, undead."

"They're both." Dawn was starving. Seriously, starving. "You see, what happens when you're turned into a vampire is that your body dies, your soul goes to whatever eternal reward you're going to go to, and a blood demon starts wearing your corpse around like a costume." "Okay, this is where I have a problem." Jesse was in the back seat of the Mercedes with Willow. He was leaning forward, though, in order to better take part in the conversation. "See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a *talk* with vampires in it." "I need to sit down." Willow looked like she was going to faint.

The Jack-in-the-Box was the third fast food place Dawn passed on her way to Giles's apartment. She looked at it longingly, but didn't pull in despite the fact that she could almost taste the french fries from her car. It didn't help, either, that Xander was sitting in the front passenger seat next to her, looking all male with his t-shirt and his jeans and his flowery button up that wasn't buttoned up at all and his smell. She took a deep breath in, through his nose, taking in as much as she could of the odor of his raw Xander-ness. Then she rolled her eyes at herself. _Xander-ness. Like that's a word. Great. My God, I've got it bad._

Dawn shook her head and gritted her teeth. "You should have warned me, Buffy. You really should have warned me."

"Warned you about what?" Xander was eyeing her critically. "Are you okay, Dawn?"

"Yeah, its just... doing that sort of thing when I was fighting the vampires? All that sudden frenzied action at high speed? It burns a lot of calories. Gets my blood up, you might say. I probably just burned my way through dinner, and now I'm hungry again." She gave him a quick glance, taking him all in. Dawn wasn't about to mention the other side-effect of actively slaying vampires. She had a lot of pent-up nervous energy and her body wanted to expend it in one particular fashion. _Buffy should have explained it. Just calling it the Hungry and Hornies isn't enough. No wonder Faith was such a slut-bomb. _"We're here. Come on."

"Are you sure its safe to get out of the car, Dawn?" Willow was still wide-eyed and obviously on the edge.

"Yeah, we're not going far. His door's right there." Dawn waited until they were all out of the car before heading into the courtyard. She was gratified to see that a light was on. "It's this one." She beat on Giles's door, paused, then repeated the action.

The door opened just enough to reveal a tired-looking Rupert Giles. "Yes? May I help you?" He stood back far enough from the door to keep from being snagged by anything reaching through the door, but not so far back that he couldn't close it quickly. Unfortunately, Dawn wasn't giving him a choice.

"Giles! Man, its great to see you. We need your help!" She pushed the door open all the way despite his best attempts to prevent it, dragging the other three teenagers with her into the main room. "We just bumped into four vamps outside of the Bronze – that's the local teen hangout – and one of them was Darla Fenchurch. I fought and dusted three of them, but Darla got away; I couldn't chase her down because I had to take these guys to safety." She took a deep breath and concluded: "I figured that your place would be the best place to come since they were asking questions and you're the Watcher. Do you mind if we sat down?" She didn't wait for an answer, but rather maneuvered a still-shell-shocked Willow onto Giles's couch while simultaneously waving Xander and Jesse to their own seats.

Giles stood by the door for a moment, totally nonplussed. "What... who... Miss Rosenberg? What are you doing here?" He turned on Dawn. "I beg your pardon, but who are you and by what right do you just burst into my apartment?"

"Oh! Right. Sorry about that. I'm Dawn Summers. I just slew three vampires. You're a Watcher, I think I might be a Slayer. So I came to you for help." Dawn took the seat immediately to the left of Xander, unconsciously grabbing his hand when she did so.

"What's a Slayer?" Jesse asked from his position on the couch. Willow and Xander were watching the back-and-forth as if it were a tennis match.

"Did you say... Miss Summers? I wasn't expecting you so soon. I thought you were still in Los Angles with your mother and your younger sister!" Giles stepped forward, then stopped. "Wait. How did you know where I lived?" He paused again, and Dawn let him work it through. "Did you say your name was _Dawn_ Summers? I thought your name was..."

"Excuse me, but what's a Slayer?" Jesse asked again.

"And what's a Watcher?" Willow interjected.

"Nope. I'm Dawn." Dawn shrugged, trying to keep him off the topic.

Giles was suddenly formal again. "If I may ask, then, what are you doing here, and how do you know about Slayers and Watchers."

"I, uh..." Dawn hesitated. She didn't want to reveal the truth. This Rupert Giles was still basically a tool of the Council, and she really didn't want them involved. _Ah, damn. Too late._ It occurred to Dawn that, if she was a Slayer, now that Giles knew it would only be a matter of time before the Council sent her a Watcher of her own. _Especially since Buffy and Mom and..._ "Wait. Did you say Buffy and her mother and her little sister?"

"Hey... what's a Slayer." Jesse was almost yelling. He looked over at Willow, and added, "And what's a Watcher?"

"A Slayer is a girl who has the power to fight vampires and demons. A Watcher is her adviser, mentor, and trainer." Dawn explained bluntly. "We'll tell you more in a minute. Gimme a sec, okay?"

"That information is generally not for public consumption, young lady. How did you come to know about it?" Giles was carefully sidestepping to his right, but was doing so slowly enough to not draw anyone's attention to what he was doing. Dawn noticed the tension in his upper body, then spotted the hilt of a saber tucked behind a short bookcase about a foot and a half away.

Dawn held up her hands. "Hey, its okay, Giles. No need to go for the sword. My name is Dawn Summers. I moved here day before yesterday. This morning I woke up and I, uh, felt different." _Especially after the Key left_, she thought to herself. "I had a bunch of really weird, uh dreams. All about these girls who were fighting monsters. And the last dream, um, right before I woke up, was me fighting monsters. These huge, scary, super-versions of vampires that couldn't be staked and were stronger than normal vampires." _Sure, we can use the Slayer dreams to explain how we know things._

"You had a precognitive dream? One that told you about Slayers and Watchers?' Dawn nodded at the older man's questions. "And you said tonight you killed three vampires?"

"She was amazing!" Xander said. "All three were done in less than ten seconds. And she totally spooked the last one."

"Yes, well..." The older man looked confused, as if he wasn't sure how to go on. "Hold on... I'm sorry, but did you say your name was _Dawn_ Summers?" He repeated his earlier question, as if he couldn't accept her first answer.

"Yes. Dawn Summers."

"That is an extraordinary coincidence, don't you think?" The expression of confusion grew deeper on Rupert Giles's face. "That you not only share a surname with the Slayer before you, assuming you are a Slayer, but that you share a first name with the current Slayer's younger sister?" Dawn could see his lips getting thin. From long experience, she knew that this was the first stage of his getting angry.

Dawn deadpanned. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even know what the, uh, previous Slayer is named. I just know what I saw in the dream, and I know what Darla called me."

"Do you have any actual proof that you are who you say you are?" Giles voice was clipped. "And what you say you are?" Without warning, he tossed something metallic and shiny at her. By reflex, Dawn caught the object out of the air, and then looked at it. It was a silver-colored cross on a short chain.

Dawn looked up at Giles and shrugged. "Did I pass?"

"I'm still waiting for you to provide me with some evidence that you are who you say you are." Giles made a complicated finger movement in her direction.

Dawn blinked. She had no idea what he was up to. "What, like an ID card? I've got my driver's license and my credit cards and such. Would those do?" She gently tossed her purse to Giles, who caught it. "Go ahead. Dig my stuff out, its okay. As for the other thing..." Dawn looked around, then approached the black chest that was doubling as a side table. "This looks heavy. May I?" At Giles nod, Dawn carefully cleared the top of the chest, then opened it. "Wow... and its full of party favors." Swords, axes, bladed weapons of all kinds. Even a mace. She lifted one of the blades and looked at it, then put it back in the chest.

"Okay, here goes." Dawn closed and latched the chest. She wasn't quite sure it would work herself, so when she lifted the chest over her head with both hands, she left out a breath she hadn't even known she was holding. And then she shifted the chest to a single hand, taking its full weight on one arm. And then, just to put the cherry on it, she propped it up on her fingertips.

"Oh wow, Dawn, that's incredible. How much does that thing weigh? A couple hundred pounds or such?" Xander was staring at her with a grin. Jesse and Willow were also looking on with admiration.

Dawn started to smile at Xander's enthusiasm for her performance, but stopped when she saw how pale Giles had become. "Giles? What's the matter?" She carefully put the trunk on the floor and took a step toward him.

"If you're... if you're the new Slayer, that means..." His face was positively grim. "I need to make a telephone call. Perhaps several. Please, don't wander off. I'll be right back." Giles nearly ran up the short flight of stairs to the apartment's upper level, leaving the four teenagers alone.

"I hope everything's all right." Dawn got up and paced. "Everything's going to be all right. They're going to be fine. They've got to be fine."

Willow pointed to the side table next to the couch. "There's a phone right here. Why didn't he use this one? Why'd he run upstairs?"

"He probably didn't want to talk in front of us." Jesse put forward. He looked over at Dawn to say something, but stopped. "Is she going to be okay?"

Dawn had gone white as a sheet. Xander stood and put a hand on her arm. "Hey, you okay? What's going on."

"Well, you see... I... Its hard to... Crap. I don't know." She stopped pacing. "Look, this is going to be a bit weird, so let me start at the beginning, okay? You'll understand why Giles and I are sort of freaking out once I explain it." She gestured toward the couch, and after Xander had sat, returned to her own place. "Okay, so here goes. Now, remember, no matter how crazy, its the truth, right?" She waited for the other three kids to nod. "Okay. You know how I told you on the way over here that vampires and demons are real? Well its not just vampires and demons. Its pretty much every monster from mythology and horror stories. They're all real."

Dawn took a deep breath. "Buffy told me once that Giles has this big, prewritten speech for explaining it, but it always sounded hokey and overblown to me. It started, 'The world is older than you know, and contrary to popular myth it didn't start out as a paradise' or something like that. I always –"

"Well, yeah. Everybody knows that." Willow interrupted. "Early earth was this huge conglomeration of asteroids and meteors that was constantly being bombarded by more rocks from space. And then when gravity fused it all together it was basically covered in magma for a billion years. It was only after it had cooled down that water formed and life had a chance to arise."

"Right. I think I read that in a _National Geographic _once." Jesse added. "And then there was a billion years of life on Earth being only microbes and germs and such, then multi-celled life, then worms and shrimp and things, then fish, and fro -" at a look from Willow, Jesse abruptly changed the world in the middle – "I mean amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals. Eventually monkeys apes and us, right?"

"Yeah, but alongside humans there were demons and monsters." Dawn was nodding. "Way back when, before humans were much more than smart apes armed with sticks, Earth was ruled over by the worst demons imaginable. Anybody here ever read H.P. Lovecraft?"

"Wait, you mean Cthulhu was real?" Xander was shaking, suddenly. Apparently the very idea terrified him to the bone.

Dawn put an arm around him and gave him a quick hug. Trust Xander to have read Lovecraft. From the look in Willow and Jesse's eyes, they both recognized the reference too. "It's okay. Not Cthulhu specifically, but there were beings like that. The Old Ones were these huge inhuman creatures with god-like power, and they ruled over the earth." She looked over at Willow and Jesse. "They lost control over the earth, somehow. Nobody really knows how, but they got driven out, or died in infighting, or something. Anyway, they lost control."

"So if they were driven away, why are there still monsters?" Jesse asked.

"Well, that's complicated." Dawn opened her mouth, then immediately shut it again. She smiled quickly, almost embarrassed "Sorry, I'm trying to figure out the best way to explain."

"Sure, take your time." Xander reached out and took her hand.

Dawn smiled at him. They stared at each other for several minutes, but eventually Dawn couldn't help it. She started giggling. "I'm sorry. Its just... I'm trying not to just dump all this stuff on you. Anyway, you've got monsters that come out of people's belief systems, from mythology. They're powered by belief. Then you've got creatures from other dimensions; some of them are hell dimensions, others are just... different. Anyway, we call those demons. Then there are the monsters that are native to Earth, and are more the subject of what's it called – cryptozoology."

Willow laughed at that. "What, like Bigfoot?"

"Yeah, like Bigfoot."

"Okay, so there are monsters. What's a Slayer and what's a watcher? You said the Slayer fights monsters?"

"Right. A long time ago, a cabal of wizards decided that people needed a protector. So they took a teenage girl and used their magic to implant the essence of a demon in her. It gave her greater strength, speed, and reaction time, and increased her senses, her endurance, and her ability to heal. It also made her more aggressive and gave her instinctual know-how regarding how to fight and use weapons."

"Wait, magic's real too?"

"Come on, Jesse. We're talking about demons and monsters and superheroes but what you have a problem with is that magic is real?" Willow rolled her eyes at him.

"And you're one of these girls?" Xander smiled at her. "You're a superhero?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"So why would that make Mister Giles so upset?" Willow glanced up at the stairs, but there was no sign of Giles.

"Well... there's no easy way to say this. Let's just say the retirement package for a Slayer sucks ass." Dawn stared at the floor and her voice dropped to just above the whisper level. "A Slayer fights monsters until she dies, and then the next Slayer is chosen. The power of the Slayer transfers to the next girl in line. No one knows who its going to be, exactly, but there are certain ways to tell who might become one."

"Wait, so in order for someone to become a Slayer, the last one has to _die?"_

"Yeah, Willow. They have to die. That's why Giles is so concerned. If I'm the Slayer... if I just became the Slayer... that means the previous Slayer is dead now. Unless something really weird is going on, the Slayer before me died last night."

**XxxxxxX**

Rupert Giles watched the teenagers in his living room for a moment from the shadows of his staircase before turning and entering his bedroom. He picked up the telephone receiver and dialed the overseas number. It was... he did the math in his head... 6 am in London. Someone should be monitoring the phones; there was always someone monitoring the phones. He heard the line click several times as the connection was made. Then it started ringing. Three times. Four. Finally, someone answered.

"_British Library, Periodicals Section. How may I direct your call?"_

"This is Rupert Giles, calling from California. ID 2239842. I need to speak to whomever is on duty right now, please." He could hear typing through the phone line. He knew that his identification was being pulled up on a video screen by computer.

"_Please hold. I am transferring you to Doctor Watson."_

There was a click, then silence. While he was waiting Giles strained to hear what was going on downstairs. He could hear the children talking, but couldn't make out what was being said.

"_This is Watson. Giles? What brings you to call at such an ungodly hour? Given that your Slayer hasn't even..."_

"That's partially why I am calling, James." He normally would have avoided the familiarity, but Giles knew the other man would see it as a sign that Giles was potentially facing a crisis. "Sorry about the time, old man, but I have something of a situation brewing and needed some information." He paused, wondering where to begin. No help for it. "A young lady just barged into my apartment and demanded my assistance because, as she put it, she was the Slayer, I was a Watcher, so she needed my help."

"_She WHAT?"_

"Yes, my reaction exactly. Apparently she and three of her companions – all of them are students at the school at which I am maintaining my cover – apparently faced off against one of the members of the Scourge of Europe and three minions tonight."

"_Against the... this is impossible. We've received no word that the Slayer Buffy Summers has died or been killed."_

"I know. This is why I need authorization to contact one of the undercover surveillance teams in Los Angeles in order to verify the active Slayer's status, their contact number, and the authorization password." Giles searched for a pen on his nightstand, then found a notepad. "I want to confirm the status of Miss Summers. The last report I saw had her safe and sound... well, as much as a Slayer is ever safe and sound... assisting her mother in the packing of their belongings."

"_Certainly. One moment."_ Giles heard mumbling at the other end of the phone. _"My assistant is fetching that information. What proof did the girl offer that she was the Slayer?"_

"Besides the backing of her companions, she lifted my weapons chest over her head one-handed, then proceeded to balance it on her fingertips."

"_Really? Which raises the question of just who this girl happens to be."_

"She gave me her identification." Giles dug into the girl's purse and found her wallet. Within it was a California Driver's License, a Social Security Card, and a handful of bank cards. "Her name – or at least her paperwork gives her name – as Dawn Marie Summers. That's what it says on her bank cards as well."

"_Dawn Marie Summ – isn't that the name of Buffy Summers' younger sister? Is this the same person?"_

"Yes, that is the name of the younger Summers girl, but if I recall correctly Buffy's sister Dawn is only ten. Its an odd coincidence, but I have seen stranger things."

_"True, true... if you recall from the Annals of the Slayer, in 1822 there were three Slayers who were Called consecutively, in three separate countries, whose names happened to be Anna-Elizabeth – Anna-Elizabeth von Hursten of Denmark, Anna-Elizabeth Robiquet of Monaco, and Anna-Elizabeth Wycke of Australia. As you say, stranger things have happened."_

"Yes." Giles nodded, knowing the other person couldn't see him do it. It was a reflex. "Well, I have her name and her Social Security number. Can you have someone look into this girl's background, just in case?"

_Certainly._

Giles gave Watson the information.

"_And you're sure she's not a vampire or some sort of demonic imposter?"_

Giles shrugged to himself. "She's not a vampire, I know that much at least. She handled a cross without burning, plus she entered my apartment without an invitation. I also cast a simple revealing spell that should have shown me if she had shape-shifted or was wearing a glamour and had no response." Giles took his glasses off and rubbed them on the end of his shirt. "I hesitate to say this, but I think she was telling the truth. I think she's the new Slayer, which means something has happened to Buffy Summers."

"_It's certainly possible. The last report I read was the same you did. If the power of the Slayer has transferred... none of our seers detected a Potential Slayer in your area. If I recall correctly, the closest Potential to your location is either Natasha Melnick in Los Angeles, or Veronica Dudditz in San Francisco, I forget which... but this girl would hardly be the first Potential our sweeps have missed."_

"No. Quite..." Giles knew that Buffy Summers herself had been missed by the sweeps that regularly searched for the girls who had the Potential to become Slayers. Over the long history of the Council, they'd missed hundreds of girls, perhaps even thousands.

"_If worst comes to worst, Rupert, I'm going to immediately authorize... ah, Michael has brought me the contact information. The gentleman you wish to talk to in Los Angeles is William Haverchuck."_ Watson gave Giles the phone number and code phrase.

"Got it. You were saying?"

"_I was about to say that if worst comes to worst, I'm going to immediately authorize you becoming the new Slayer's assigned Watcher. You're already on site, after all, and by coming to you she's displayed a certain level of trust."_

"Certainly. I understand."

"_Now, if it turns out that Buffy Summers is still alive and well... Well... I'm not sure. I'll send a team of investigators to you and we'll see what is what. I'm not sure what it would possibly mean if a new Slayer was called while the current Slayer was still alive. Its unprecedented. In over five thousand years, there's never been more than one Slayer at a time. It's... it's... it's impossible. Simply impossible."_

"It would certainly be exciting. Imagine, two Slayers working as a team to protect humanity?" Giles stared into space for a bit. "If this is true, there is almost no limit on what they might accomplish."

"_If its true, the girl is going to need a Watcher of her own... but that can wait until we find out what's going on. In the mean time, let's operate under the assumption that she is a Slayer, somehow, and if she needs a Watcher act in that capacity at least until we can get someone there to take over for you, assuming..."_

"Assuming Buffy Summers is still alive. Yes, I agree. All right, Dr. Watson, I shall call you back shortly." Giles disconnected the call and returned to the door to listen for the teenagers. He could hear intermittent conversation, but it seemed to be coming from the kitchen, not the living room. _Those cheeky buggers are raiding my refrigerator! The unmitigated gall!_

_Teenagers_, Giles thought to himself. _Worse, American teenagers. No manners at all._ He shook his head and dialed the number of the man in Los Angeles, William Haverchuck. The number rang once before being answered.

"_Damn it, I told you to call me in the morning, Martin. This had better be good!" _The accent was American.

"This isn't Martin. This is Rupert Giles, I am calling you from Sunnydale." Giles read from the his notepad. "I'm supposed to give you the code phrase 'Snakes are in the grass, alas.'"

"_Ah. You're going to be the girl's Watcher when her family finishes moving. Should be another couple of days. What can I do for you?"_

Well... the reason I was calling... you do still have Buffy Summers under surveillance, yes?"

"_We are keeping track of the girl and her family just in case. We've had her parents home bugged with cameras and microphones ever since she was released from the asylum, just in case we had to separate the girl from her mother and father. My last check-in with my man on the scene was about twenty minutes ago. Why?"_

"Twenty minutes. So its unlikely anything has happened to her in the meantime?" Giles took his glasses off again and re-cleaned them.

"_One of my men, Steven Gattery, is in a van across the street from the Summers residence. He'd notify me if something happened. Occasionally the little girl will get into a screaming match with the Slayer, but since the parents aren't fighting anymore? It has been pretty quiet since the divorce was finalized."_

"Then... how did this happen?" Giles asked himself.

"_How did what happen, Mr. Giles?"_

"We apparently have a second Slayer. She showed up tonight, at my apartment."

"_That's impossible."_

Giles sighed into the phone. "Yes, that's what everyone says, isn't it. All right, thank you for the information. I'll expect Ms. Summers to arrive in a couple of days."

For several minutes, Rupert Giles just sat there, staring into space. He wondered how this could have possibly happened, and what it would mean, and how it would affect the future. Did this Dawn Summers now carry the power of the Slayer line? Or was it still being held by Buffy Summers and Dawn merely 'using' it somehow? What would happen if either of them were killed? Would new Slayers be called by the death of one or the other? Or both? And what would happen if new Slayers just started to be called spontaneously?

Giles stared at the phone for a long while before dialing Doctor Watson back. He was still a Watcher, and semi-miraculous occurrences or no, he still had a duty to perform.

**XxxxxxX**

At the sound of footsteps on the stairs, Dawn put down the box of cereal she'd been munching from and waited for the man to speak. Willow, who had been slathering jam onto a piece of bread, stopped also. The two boys, Jesse and Xander, were still on the couch where they'd been discussing the evening's events. They, too, stopped what they were doing when they saw Giles return.

"I see you've made yourself at home." Giles looked at Dawn and Willow, his lips pursed.

"Its my fault. I was starving." Dawn stared at the still-open cereal box. "I'll replace it, I promise."

"Yes, well, it doesn't matter, I'm sure." Giles picked up the box, closed it, and returned it to the cabinet. "I spoke to the Council."

"Oh, right! So what do they say?" Dawn tried to keep the nerves from her face, but it was difficult.

"Apparently –" Giles began, but stopped when Jesse and Xander entered the kitchen. "We should probably have this conversation in private."

Dawn shook her head. "Its not necessary. I, uh, told them the basics already. There's no need to hide anything from them."

"You already told them the basics? What 'basics' did you tell them?" Giles once again took his glasses off and started rubbing them on the end of his shirt.

Dawn shrugged. "Vampires exist. Slayers kill them."

"She never did explain the Watcher thing," Jesse said.

Willow spoke up. "No, she did. She said something about Watchers being mentors and trainers." She turned to Giles. "She said you were a Watcher. Ooh You mentioned a Council. Is there a Council of Slayers?"

"Council of Watchers." Dawn corrected. "There's usually only one Slayer."

"Oh, right. You said that." Willow's face darkened. "Only one girl, and the old one has to die first. Was Dawn right? Did the old Slayer die?"

Giles was thunderstruck. "Miss Summers, what are you playing at? The existence of the Slayer is a secret for a reason! If the identity of the Slayer became known among the vampires, it would be catastrophic. Her... _YOUR_... life would be ended quickly as the monsters would come after you relentlessly."

Dawn was quiet for a long time. "You didn't answer Willow's question. What happened to Buffy?"

"What? Oh... um, nothing. Buffy Summers is fine. As far as we can tell, she's currently in bed sleeping." Giles looked at his watch. "Which is where you four should be. It is a school night after all."

"Oh no, you're not getting off that easy, buster." Xander huffed. "What's the what, here? Dawn and this Buffy girl are super-heroes who fight monsters. Why haven't we seen this on the evening news or something?"

"People tend to explain away anything they see or experience that doesn't fit into their narrow worldview." Dawn explained. "And when they can't explain it, they just forget it. I've seen it happen with other things. Tragic accidents and such."

"So vampires are real and the Slayer fights them and nobody has any idea this is going on in the background. What a world we live in." Jesse shook his head. "So what are _we_ supposed to do now?"

"Yeah. How do we help?" Xander turned to Giles. "Where do we sign up?"

"You don't." The older man was looking grim. "By rights you shouldn't even know as much as you do. You should go home. Try and forget what you've seen and heard. Live your lives.

"Well I'm never going to forget it. None of it. Vampires. I mean... really... vampires!" Willow began to look panicky. Jesse, who was closest to her, took her in his arms and hugged her from behind.

"Its too late for them to just stick their head in the sand, Giles." Dawn approached Willow, ducking her head to enter the shorter girl's eye-line. "Willow? Its okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." She stood and met Giles's eyes. "And if they want to help, they can do so in a support capacity. Research, investigation, logistics. No front-line combat unless absolutely necessary. They're involved now; if you don't guide them, they'll try and fight vampires on their own."

Giles scoffed. "How can you possibly know that?"

"Look at them. Really, just look at them." She waved at each of her new friends in turn. "Xander is outraged at the idea that vampires exist, Willow – despite being frightened out of her mind – is dedicated to protecting her friends and family from the monsters, and Jesse is caught up in the sense of adventure."

At her words, Xander just nodded and muttered a "Damn right." Jesse started to object, but finally nodded himself. Willow, still slightly shaking, just said, "I want to help" in a quiet, quiet voice.

They were all quiet for a long while. Finally, it was broken by Xander's question. "So, uh... vampires. How do we kill them? I've seen the movies, but I don't know how applicable that's going to be."

Giles opened his mouth to answer, but Dawn beat him to it. "First off, you don't kill vampires. I kill vampires." Dawn figured that if she was going to have the powers of a Slayer, she might as well act like it. "What you do if you meet a vampire is follow the First Rule of Slaying and run like hell."

"What's the First Rule of Slaying?" Willow asked. Her voice was beginning to come back, Dawn noted.

"Simple. The First Rule of Slaying is 'don't die.'" Everyone had a laugh, even Giles; the gallows humor in the statement relieved some of the tension.

"There are rules for Slaying?" Jesse asked. "Like the Seven Faculty rules at the University of Woolamaloo?"

Giles gave a dry laugh. "Monty Python reference. Brilliant. I suppose there's some hope for you yet."

"I don't get it." Dawn said. "Rules for what?"

"Its a Monty Python skit," Giles explained. "In it, the faculty rules for the University of Woolamaloo – its a town in Australia – are explained to a newly hired professor."

"Rule Number Six: There is no rule number six!" Willow recited. "Its hilarious." Everyone, even Dawn, laughed at that.

"So there's rules to slaying and the first rule is don't die. So what's the second rule, Dawn?" Xander asked.

That brought Dawn up short. "Heh. Um, the Second Rule..." Dawn was trying to keep the smile on her face, but the Second Rule brought up harsh memories. "The Second Rule of Slaying is, do not hesitate to break the First Rule if its the only way to save the world."

Everyone was silent again.

"Mister Giles, you said that the other Slayer, Bunny something... you said she was okay?" Jesse asked.

"What? Oh, yes. Buffy... her name is Buffy Summers, she's currently in Los Angeles with her mother and younger sister. They're going to be moving here in another couple of days, apparently."

Jesse was still thinking. "So if this Buffy Summers is fine, how is Dawn a Slayer too?"

"That, young man, is the question of the hour." Giles stared hard at Dawn, who looked sheepish in response. "The Council is sending a team to evaluate you and to make sure you are, in fact, a Slayer. They'll be here tomorrow morning – later today, I should say, since its now past midnight. If you are, in fact, a Slayer – and I'll be honest and say I think you are – you'll be assigned your own watcher."

Dawn started to say something, but Giles held up a hand. "I'm afraid I couldn't serve in that capacity, what with being Buffy Summers watcher first. That said, I am sure that with two Slayers on the Hellmouth, we'll still be working together."

"It'll be like the Justice League!" Xander said. "Okay, that didn't sound as geeky in my head as it did out loud, but you get the idea. Dawn and, um, Buffy? Yeah, Dawn and Buffy fight the bad guys, we help them how we can, right?"

Giles sighed. "Apparently you will, regardless of how I feel about it." He once again looked at his watch. "Now I really must insist on going to bed. The team from the Council will be here and I intend to meet them at the airport. Miss Summers, I don't know when you're scheduled to begin school – "

"Day after tomorrow."

"All right... but I would still appreciate it if you could come by the Sunnydale High School library tomorrow afternoon after school gets out, say about 5:30 in the evening, in order to meet with them. Can you make an appropriate excuse to your parents?"

Dawn shrugged. She wasn't ready to open that can of worms yet. "It won't be a problem."

"Fine, then." He began shooing them out the door. "As you arrived all together I'm sure you can find your way to your homes all together. Good night. Good night." He closed the door behind them.

"I think that was the first time I've ever been bum-rushed. Its an odd feeling." Willow snarked.

"I wouldn't worry about it." Dawn started toward the car, then stopped. "Damn it." She turned around and knocked on Giles's door until he opened it."

"Miss Summers, back again so soon. And the moon is still up, as well."

Dawn didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, sorry, but you never gave me back my purse."

"Oh. Right. One moment." He shut the door, not letting her in this time. Dawn had hummed the theme to _Jeopardy_ four times before he came back.

"Thanks. G'nite, Giles." She pulled the keys out of her purse and climbed behind the wheel. Willow had indeed taken the front seat, with the boys in the back. "Okay, let me get you guys home."

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn dropped Willow off first, then Jesse. She stayed in the car as the two boys walked Willow to her door, and did the same as Xander accompanied Jesse. She sighed as Xander climbed back into the car; she wanted to talk to him, but had no idea where to begin.

Xander fastened his seat belt, and shot a grin toward Dawn. "So... its just us now."

"Yeah." Her fingers made a staccato rhythm against the steering wheel. She didn't look at him directly.

Xander arched an eyebrow at her. "You okay? I kind of notice that we haven't started moving yet."

"What? Oh, yeah." She put the car in drive and started away from the curb. "Sorry, I'm just thinking about things."

"You mean about tonight?"

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. I hope it doesn't... I hope I wasn't too..." She huffed. "Look, I was just..."

"Its okay. I know, you didn't mean to spill your secret identity to the civilians. We all still like you." Xander gave her a smile. It was the same smile that she'd crushed on when she was 13, the same crush she'd never been able to shake. And here he was, her own age now, and Anya wasn't anywhere to be seen. She had everything she wanted in front of her, and she wasn't sure how to proceed. "Sure, it was a shock, what with finding out that the world has this other secret part to it, but that's okay. We're still cool."

Dawn decided to bite the bullet. "Yeah, we're still cool. I'm glad this isn't going to get in the way of us being friends." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "We are going to be friends, right?"

"Yeah! I mean, I want to be your friend." For just a second he patted her on the shoulder. He was careful to not interfere with her driving, but felt that some form of contact was necessary.

"That's good. I was worried you might not want to be."

"What's not to like, though, Dawn? I mean, you're cool, and a superhero, and you're nice, and smart, and I love your hair, and you've got great eyes, and that dress really shows off yours..." She started to giggle and he stopped. "I'm going to shut up now."

"It's okay. I appreciate the sentiment." She grinned a wide, wide smile at him.

"Yeah? Most girls don't like it when they find out I've noticed their... um... attractive traits." Xander shrugged, clearly embarrassed. He tried to play it off with a casual smile.

"I dunno... I kind of like it." She thought about it for a minute, then decided to put the right idea in his head. "So, I mean. Hmm. You and Willow. Are you two...?"

"What, Willow and me? No, no. Not at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love her to death and I'd do anything for her, but she's like... she's like the best sister I could ever have, but never had, you know? How did Aquaman put it?"

"Family in every way except by blood?" Dawn finished for him.

His face lit up. "You read comics?"

"I read comics. I play video games. I watch sci fi and horror movies. I was even hoping to find a local D&D group." Dawn blushed. "Hi, I'm Dawn Summers. I'm a geek." She held out her hand as if this was their first meeting.

"Xander Harris. Also a geek. Nice to meet you," he replied, going along with the joke. He turned back toward the road. "You're like a perfect woman. A geek wrapped up in a beautiful, smart, super-powered package."

"Yeah, well... I'm glad you think so." Dawn went silent.

Xander noticed and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just working up my courage to ask you something."

That got him to laugh. "You killed three vampires in hand-to-hand combat and you're nervous about asking me a question? Wow. That's an amazing compliment, thinking I'm scarier than vampires."

"Yeah, I guess so." Dawn thought about it for a second, then bit the bullet.

She bit her lip, then asked. "Well, I was thinking that maybe we should spend some time together."

"Wha-huh?" Xander was staring at her, wide-eyed. "Are you saying what I think you're saying? You, With me?"

"I'm not asking you to jump into bed with me, Xander." They both blushed at the mental image. "I'm just wondering if we might want to spend some time together, you and me. I mean, you seem nice, and you've got a great smile, and you've been funny. You seem like you wouldn't jerk me around. You're not that hard to look at, either." Dawn blushed. "I'm, uh, I guess you could say that you've got me interested. In you."

"Not that I'm not interested. I mean, what guy wouldn't be. But, uh, you just met me. You don't know me, and I don't know you, and now you're asking me out."

"Okay, I mean, I'm not talking about rushing into anything. Just... let's be friends. Let's, you know, hang out, talk, see how much we really have in common, see some movies together. We can see where it goes."

"Again with the you just met me."

"Yes, I know. But you're... you're..." Dawn sighed. "I'll be honest. I find you very attractive. I mean, really, really attractive. And I just thought..."

"Right, I get it. I mean, its weird." At her scowl, he quickly amended, "No, no, I mean, I'm not used to girls thinking I'm attractive."

"Oh."

"And I'm flattered. And sure, I'm interested. But I'm also wondering if your attraction isn't based on my being the first guy you met in a new town where you don't know anyone." Xander tried to look conciliatory.

_I keep forgetting that he's the One Who Sees._ Dawn thought to herself. She stayed quiet, thinking. "I don't know. Maybe a little. But if so, I'd like to think it would move past that if we actually got to know each other. That's all I'm asking. Like I said, I'm not looking to marry you, or have your babies, or even have sex with you." She swallowed hard, "Just a chance to get to know you better."

Xander thought about it. "Yeah, okay. Let's get to know each other better. We can hang out, go to the movies. Date, even. Hey, miniature golf is an option, right?"

"I love miniature golf!" Dawn pulled up to the curb in front of his house and put the car in park. Turning to him, she decided to take a chance. "And you never know. If it turns out that we get along well enough and you play your cards right, and we might get to see some of each others' attractive traits from a much more, um, immediate perspective." It was a kindly grin, but the undercurrent was pure evil on her part."

Xander nodded his head, still obviously trying to play it cool. "Yeah, that sounds... yeah!"

They sat there for a second before Dawn pointed. "This is your house, right?"

Xander turned and looked. "Unfortunately," he muttered, just loud enough to hear. He unbuckled and opened the car door. When she got out and came around the car, he suddenly looked sheepish. "Oh, hey, you don't have to..."

"I know, but I want to." Dawn took his hand in hers.

"Look, there's, um, something you should know. About my folks." Dawn could feel Xander's hand flex and unflex as he walked. It was clear that he was trying to draw out the walk as much as possible. Dawn knew why; all the Scoobies knew about Tony and Jessica Harris and the impossible level of abusive bullshit they'd piled onto Xander. She wanted Xander to know she didn't care.

"What about your folks, Xander?" Dawn turned and looked him in the eye, sill holding his hand. She reached out and took the other one and held it. "Are they not going to like you walking a girl to their door?'

Xander shook his head. "You gotta understand. They..."

Xander was interrupted when the door opened and a deep, slurring male voice called out, "Get your ass inside, boy, before I rip you a new asshole! You'rse supposed to be home an hour ago. You're momma's worried sick. Tell you're little slut to go home. She ain't peddling it in my house."

Xander was clearly mortified. He was white as a sheet and staring at his shoes. Dawn could clearly see Tony Harris standing in the doorway, dressed in a tank top and a pair of boxer shorts. He had a half-empty beer bottle in one hand, and as she watched he sucked down the remaining liquid it contained.

"Hey, Xander." Dawn leaned toward Xander and hugged him. While she was close, she whispered, "Was what you wanted to warn me about the fact that your dad was a loudmouth drunk?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah," he whispered back. "My mom's not much better."

"Don't worry, I won't hold them against you."

Dawn stepped away and smiled at his upturned face. She leaned in toward him and kissed him lightly on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow at the school. Be good, okay? We'll talk more about this later. You have nothing to be ashamed about with me." Xander nodded and turned toward the house while she left for her car. She didn't pull out into the road until she saw the door close.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn didn't go home.

She thought about it, figured she would, knew that her bed was calling, but she didn't go home. Instead, she went back to Willow's house. For the longest time she sat, parked by the side of the road, watching the lights on in the house. Soon enough, the lights downstairs went out, and after that the lights upstairs went out, except for one. The angle was tight, but she could see just a single person moving around.

Dawn left her car, taking care to make sure she was alone on the street before moving to the Rosenberg's yard. She scaled the tree in the side yard like a cat and it gave her a perfect view into Willow's room. The girl herself was sitting at at a desk, tapping away at a computer. Willow was obviously dressed for bed in a nightgown that had some sort of stuffed animal printed on it. Her hair was in a single braid going down the girl's back.

Dawn steadied herself, then jumped from the tree to the roof of the house. She tried to land as quietly as she could, but there was only so much that she could do about it. The noise of her landing had attracted Willow's attention, and as Dawn climbed toward the lit Window, Willow's face appeared in it. Both girl's nearly jumped out of their skin, and Dawn very nearly lost a hand-hold that would have caused her to plummet to the ground.

By the time she righted herself, Willow had the window open. "Dawn, what are you doing on my roof! Its after midnight already!"

"I know. I had to talk to you about something. Its sort of important and for some reason I couldn't wait until tomorrow. Can I come in?" Willow opened her mouth to say something but Dawn held up a hand. "No... no verbal invitations. Step back, motion me in, nod, whatever, but don't ever invite anyone into your home verbally, especially at night. So, can I come in?"

Willow stepped away from the window and motioned Dawn forward.

"Thanks." Dawn climbed through the window as quietly as possible. "Sorry, I know its late, but I have to talk to you and I like you too much to surprise you with it. Here, let's sit."

"Well, that's the sort of thing you say to make someone extremely nervous." Willow took a spot on her bed. Dawn herself found an empty stretch of wall near the window and slid down it until her butt hit the floor. "So what couldn't wait until tomorrow, Dawn?"

"I need to talk to you about Xander."

Willow's forehead scrunched up. "Xander? What about Xander?"

Dawn drew the question out as slowly as she could. "What can you tell me about his parents?"

"Oh. That." Willow sort of collapsed in on herself. "I don't think he'd like that you were asking these questions."

"I met his dad tonight. Sort of. He stood in the door and yelled at Xander and called me a slut." Dawn shrugged at Willow's shocked expression. "I didn't take it personally, but it sort of got me thinking."

"Well... his dad is... you saw him." Willow shook her head. "He's an alcoholic with anger issues."

"Anger issues. Does he take those issues out on Xander?" Willow didn't say anything. "Willow, come on. If Xander's being hit by his dad, something needs to be done about it."

Willow huffed, then answered. "Mostly its verbal abuse. And emotional abuse. Both Tony and Jessica can be really manipulative. Jessica hits Xander more often than Tony does, believe it or not." She paused. "Xander is ashamed of his parents and he doesn't want anyone to know."

"Yeah, I get that. Its a pretty common thing, from what I understand." Dawn picked a loose thread from her shirt. "I actually read something once, an article in a Psychological Journal. It turns out that despite the stereotype of a child abuser being a man, the mother is almost three times as likely to be physically abusive."

"Really. Wow. You never hear about that sort of thing on the news." Willow abruptly looked at Dawn. "Why are you so interested in Xander, anyway."

"Well..." Dawn had no idea where to start. "I, uh, I sort of asked him if he'd like to maybe go out with me sometime."

"You did what?" Willow was white as a sheet. "You – you asked him out on a date?"

Dawn shrugged. "Not as such. More like I asked him to sort of pre-date me. You know. Hang out, get to know each other, see what happens. I like him. He's good looking, and he's funny and he's nice, and I think he'd be fun to be around. So I wanted you to know, and find out how you'd feel about that."

"Well, yeah – he is all those things. But why are you telling me this?" Willow's eyes narrowed and there was a defensive tremor to Willow's voice that made Dawn wince inside. "Its like you're asking for my permission. He's a big boy, he can, uh, pre-date who he wants."

"Yeah, well, you're important to him. He told me so himself." Dawn said in a low, not-quite-regretful tone. "And he'd have a hard time being with someone you actively hated. And besides, you want the person he 'uh predates' to be you." Before Willow could object, Dawn added, "I saw the way you were looking at him tonight. I saw the way you reacted to him. I'm not blind and I'm not stupid. You're into him. I'd say you were into him a lot."

Willow didn't say anything. She just stared at Dawn, a mixture of anger and sorrow in her eyes. Dawn nodded. "Yeah. Look." She stopped talking, trying to think of something to say that would make this less painful. "Willow, I like you a lot. And I hope we can be great friends. I know that we could be great friends. And I didn't mean to hurt you by coming on to Xander, but he's, I dunno, he caught my eye. I have no idea if we're going to be a thing, but I'm going to try and see if we can be a thing, and I'd really like it if you could not hate me for doing so." Dawn swallowed. "Because right now I have three friends, and that's all, and I don't want to lose one of them because she's crushing on a boy who sees her as a sibling."

"What?" Willow asked, confused.

"I asked him if there was a thing between you two. If there had been, I would have never said boo to him and the two of you would never have known I was interested. And he said that you were family to him. He thinks of you as his the best sister he never had."

"But..." Willow's mouth opened and closed silently. Tears welled up in her eyes. "Yeah, I guess I knew that. He's never noticed me. Heck, Jesse's noticed that I'm a girl more often than Xander has, and Jesse's been obsessed with Cordelia since 7th Grade."

Willow sniffled and wiped at the tears in her eyes. Almost abruptly, she straightened up and looked Dawn dead in the face. "Okay. I'm going to get over this. I'm not going to pretend there's still a chance for me to be with him if he's with you. But I reserve the right to be irritated with you for a while, okay? Just for a little while. We'll still be friends, but I'm not going to like you so much until I'm used to it. Understand?"

Dawn nodded. "Understood. Can I give you a hug?"

"Yes."

The hug was close and warm and caring.

Willow sniffed again. "Try not to hurt him, okay?" She stood and pointed toward the window. "Now, get the hell out of my bedroom. Its hard to think nasty things at you when you're just sitting there trying to be nice." Dawn climbed through and was about to drop to the ground when she heard Willow say, "I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay? Have a good night. You, you shameless hussy!"

Later, after four bowls of Cheerios, a long, long shower that involved a bit of manually induced self-stimulation, and a search for her favorite pajama bottoms – they were footie bottoms with pink flying piggies printed on them – as she was almost asleep in her near-empty, only partially unpacked house, on sheets that were so clean they squeaked when she moved on them, Dawn suddenly came awake. She knew what she needed to do. She needed to help Willow find someone who would love her as much as Willow loved them in return.

Her first thought was to try and find Tara Maclay and bring her to Sunnydale, but after thinking about it, she realized this would be a bad idea. Right now, Tara was a seventeen year old High School junior in Eureka, Illinois. Very hard to just relocate those, even with the problems that Tara's father was actively instilling in the girl. Oz, on the other hand, lived here in Sunnydale, was also a seventeen year old High School junior, and was available as soon as Dawn found him.

And by the time Willow realized certain facts about herself, Tara would be at UC Sunnydale and ready for the hand-off.

**XxxxxxX**

The alarm, which Dawn did not remember setting, woke her up at six in the morning. She groaned as she got out of bed, crossing to her dresser where the alarm was. She had learned, years before, that it did her no good to have the alarm clock on the side-table next to the bed; if she didn't get out of bed to turn the alarm off, her morning would turn into an endless round of 'punch the snooze' and eventually waking up hours late.

Dawn formulated a plan for her day while she showered. She's start school a day early, since she had to be at the library in the afternoon anyway to meet Giles. It would give her a head start, and she could hang out with the guys, so it was all for the good. Dawn brushed out her hair, deciding to let it remain loose and flowing, then dressed. _Simple but elegant_ was her goal with her clothes. She dug out a pair of designer jeans and a matching sleeveless blouse.

Breakfast was funny-shaped pancakes; she had a moment's pause while mixing the batter to wipe tears from her eyes. She missed them. Even knowing that she'd see them again eventually, she still missed her friends. "The hardest thing to do in this world is live in it," Dawn said to the empty air. "I don't think I could have expected to try and live in it without the guys."

By the time she was done cleaning up from breakfast, it was seven am, and time to leave for school. On her way in, she noted that the realtor's sign at 1630 Ravello Drive now sported a 'SOLD!' sign. It put her in a good mood. Her mom and her sister.. and a younger version of herself... were on their way. She couldn't wait to meet them.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn entered the school's offices and looked around. It was still early, and school hadn't officially started yet, but the office was bustling. As she stood at the counter, and older woman called to her from a desk. "Good morning, young lady. What do you need today?"

"Yes, my name is Dawn Summers. I'm starting today. Just moved to Sunnydale from Los Angeles, and..."

A reptilian voice sounded from behind her. "Summers. Transferring from Hemery in Los Angeles. We were warned about you. Quite the colorful record. Burned down the gym at your last school." Dawn turned. The speaker was short, bald, and oozed malice and contempt. It had to be Snyder; Dawn had heard all about this little troll from Buffy, from Willow, from Xander... even Giles had unpleasant things to say about this man.

Snyder looked Dawn up and down as he stepped closer to her. "Principle Flutie is going to want to give you his usual soft-hearted 'we believe in a clean start' speech. Me, I'm going to keep an eye on you. You're trouble."

"O-kay..." Dawn responded. "But I'm not transferring from... you said Hemery, right? I'm transferring from Beverly Hills High. Hemery was in Bel Aire, not Beverly Hills." She extended her hand. "Hello, sir, I'm Dawn Summers."

Snyder paused, his eyes narrowing. "_Dawn_ Summers? Not _Buffy_ Summers? You're claiming you're not named Buffy Summers?"

"Uh... no. Not Buffy Summers." Dawn gave a nervous smile. "Dawn. I'm starting today and I just came in for my class schedule and textbook list."

Snyder continued to stare at her. "Do you have some form of identification?"

"Some form of – you're asking me for my ID?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am." Snyder gritted his teeth. "I have very little time for miscreant behavior, Miss Summers, and we're going to get to the bottom of this now." The abrasive little troll held out his hand. "Identification."

Dawn sighed and nodded. "Will my driver's license do?" She dug into her purse, eventually finding her license.

He took it and squinted at it. "All right, I suppose your not guilty... this time. I'm going to keep a sharp eye on you, nevertheless." He stepped past her on the way toward his office, the door of which read "Ryan Snyder, Assistant Principal". He directed himself to the older lady. "Mrs. Chambers, get this student her class list and her textbook list and get her out of my sight."

"Well, he's a pleasant experience," Dawn muttered to herself. She had apparently been loud enough for the woman, Mrs. Chambers, to overhear, for the woman snorted. "Sorry..."

"Oh no, I agree with you. He's a bit prickly to deal with, I agree. Now, what did you say your name was?"

"Dawn Summers. From Beverly Hills High."

"All right, Ms. Summers. Let's look you up." Mrs. Chambers turned to her computer screen and entered some information. "And here you are. Sophomore, coming from Beverly... I'll go ahead and print you a copy... oh. That's unusual." She looked up at Dawn. "In place of your parents names and contact information, it has information on a law firm." It was a statement, but there was a clear question behind it.

"Uh, yeah... I'm an emancipated orphan. My folks died, and, uh, my dad's boss looks out for me." Dawn tried to put up a sad front. It never occurred to her that she might need an emotional connection to her fake parents.

"Oh, my. I'm sorry. Anyway." Mrs. Chambers stood and retrieved Dawn's schedule from the printer. She handed it to Dawn, along with a small booklet and a couple of loose pages. "These extra things are the school guidebook, a map, your locker assignment, and the combination. And no, before you ask, you can't change the combination." She pointed to one specific piece of paper. "This is the list of textbooks you'll need. You can get them from the library, which is right here." She pointed on the map with a pen. "Our school librarian, Mr. Giles, will be happy to assist you I'm sure. Oh, and one last thing." Mrs. Chambers pulled a slip of paper out of a cubby and filled it out. "This is a pass for your first class, just in case you're late after getting your books."

"Thanks, Mrs. Chambers. I appreciate it." Dawn waved as she left. She scanned her class list. _Spanish, Trigonometry, World History, Lunch, English, Computer Science, and Sports and Recreational Games._ She thought to herself. _Not a bad case load, really. __Español debe ser fácil, ya que yo ya conozco el idioma a la perfección. Trig, on the other hand, is going to be a flaming, rabid bitch. I barely passed it the first time._ She shrugged. _Let's hope Willow is in that class. Sports and Recreational Games? Is that P.E.? Oh crap, I forgot to bring gym clothes!"_

The problem of gym clothes caused Dawn to be barely aware of making her way to the library. She was still concentrating on how to handle the problem as she entered. "Excuse me, Mister Giles, but Mrs. Chambers in the library said you... Oh, sorry. I didn't know you were... wait. Are these the Watcher guys?"

"Er, yes, Miss Summers, these would be the 'Watcher guys' as you so elegantly put it." Giles stood from the table where he'd been speaking to two men and a woman. "Dawn Summers," he gestured toward her. "This is Phillip Muirhead, Nigel Iyer, and Lydia Lamontagne. They're here to examine your claim to being a Slayer. They'll ask you some questions, test your strength and reflexes, and so on." Phillip Muirhead was a dark-complected man who looked vaguely Asian. Nigel Iyer was a gray-haired man with a grim expression, and Lydia Lamontagne was a pleasant-looking young woman in glasses.

"Uh, nice to meet you all. I look forward to talking with you all. After school." Dawn handed Giles the list of textbooks. "I need these textbooks, please, Mr. Giles."

"Oh, yes, of course." He took the paper and disappeared into his office. From Giles's expression, Dawn got the feeling that it shocked him a bit to be reminded that his cover sometimes actually required him to act as a school librarian.

Lydia Lamontagne had come around the table. She tentatively held out a hand. "Good to meet you, Miss Summers. I'm Lydia Lamontagne. I think I speak for all of us – " she waved toward her colleagues, "- when I say that we're intrigued by your claims. If you're really what you claim you are, then the possibilities are very exciting. And I'd like to especially say that I'm looking forward to working with you if things work out as I hope they do."

"Working with me?" Dawn cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, should you turn out to be a Slayer, as you claim, I..." the woman swallowed. It was clear to Dawn that she was quite nervous, but not in a 'holy shit this is scary' way. Rather, in a 'holy shit Johnny Depp just told me he wanted to go out to dinner with me' way. As if she was starstruck. "I have the honor to be assigned to you. As your Watcher. Should it turn out that you are, as I hope you are, really a Slayer."

"Really." Dawn looked her up and down. "Just like that?"

"Well..." Lydia looked nonplussed. "Well, yes. You're a Slayer..." She paused when Iyer coughed. "Sorry, you might be a Slayer, and Slayer's need a Watcher. And if you are – I hope you are – that's me. Personally, I'm looking forward to working with you."

Dawn thought about it. She didn't seem evil, and other than over-eagerness, there was no sign of the arrogance that ruined Wesley as a possible Watcher. "Okay, then. We'll, uh, see this afternoon."

Everyone sat or stood in silence, waiting for Giles to return. Eventually, Lydia decided to break the silence. "If you don't mind me asking, Miss Summers – "

"Dawn. I'd prefer it if you called me Dawn."

"All right, Dawn. In which case I insist you call me Lydia." The woman smiled, and it was actually warm and welcoming. "Anyway, I wanted to ask, just how did you find out about your, er, empowerment?"

Dawn lied her ass off. She had no idea how she became strong and fast and dextrous suddenly, but she didn't feel like letting the Council know that. "I, uh, I had a long, extended dream, nightmare, really, about a girl with a changing face – her face kept changing from one girl to another – and she was fighting monsters, an unending array of monsters." Dawn thought for a moment. "And, uh, well, it's hard to explain. The monsters finally got her. She was, uh, just laying on the ground bleeding and her face stopped changing; she sort of locked in as this dark-haired girl with a round face. And she told me that it was, uh, you know, my task now. Then she asked me if I was ready to be strong."

"That's incredible." The younger male Watcher, Muirwood, exclaimed. "She asked you if you were ready to be strong?" He turned to his colleagues. "Has a dream like that been recorded in the annals of the Slayer?"

"No. No, it hasn't." The other male Watcher, Iyer, said. His tone made it clear that he didn't believe her. Iyer stood and approached Dawn. "Miss Summers, if you would, would you mind holding this –" he held out a gold-colored coin "- in one hand, and this – " he held up a short knife, barely a poniard "- in the other?"

Dawn stared at it for a moment, then called out to Giles. "Mr. Giles, are you going to be too much longer?"

From the depths of the office came the reply. "Sorry, Miss Summers, I'm having a hard time finding your history text. Just a moment."

Dawn shrugged. "Okay, since I apparently have time." She took the two objects. "Okay, what now?"

Iyer pushed her hands together. "Hold your hands like this. Now." He waved a hand over hers. _"Emunabit!"_

Dawn yelled. _"OW! SHIT!" _She hurled the two items away from her as hard as she could. Both the coin buried itself in the wall next to the door to Giles's office. The knife punctured the body of the fire extinguisher next to the library entrance, which was rapidly became occluded by the rapidly expanding cloud of CO2 foam.

Giles rushed out of his office holding a small stack of textbooks. "What is the meaning of this?!" He slammed the books onto the library counter. "See here, you can't just... Miss Summers, put him down. Now."

Dawn had leapt at Iyer, grabbing him by the lapels with one hand and lifted, hauling her other hand back and into a fist and screamed into his face. "_WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"_

"Language, Miss Summers. Put Mr. Iyer down, please. I don't know what happened, but I am sure that he meant no harm. Isn't that right, Mr. Iyer?" Giles was trying to be as conciliatory as possible, given that Dawn was visibly angry and was also demonstrating that, Slayer or not, she was stronger than a girl her size should have been. Giles's face reflected that he was quite aware that, if spurred to violence, Dawn could quite easily kill them all with her bare hands.

"Sorry... I'm sorry." Iyer was holding his hands up in surrender. "We had to know! We had to know first thing! And now we know! You wouldn't have reacted that way were you not a Slayer. So now we know!"

But it was Giles who had Dawn's attention. She dropped Iyer, who collapsed to the floor. She shook both of her hands out. "You could have warned me about the electric shock. Asshole. Are these my books, Mr. Giles?"

The abrupt change of subject caught Giles wrong-footed. "Um, yes. And again, Miss Summers, let me apolo-"

"Skip it. I understand. I don't like it, but I understand." Dawn picked up her books and turned toward the door. Just before leaving the library, she turned back. "I'll be here after school's out and we can all talk then." She looked toward Lydia. "Guess you're my Watcher. Good luck!"

She stared at Iyer, trying to telepathically send him the message that she really, really didn't like him at all. "I've got to get to Spanish. I'm already late."

When she was gone, the other three Watchers turned on Iyer. "And just what did you think you were doing, Iyer?" Giles voice held a violent edge to it. "Why didn't you warn her that if she was, in fact, a Slayer, the spell would administer a mild electric shock?"

"Truthfully? I believed the spell wouldn't react to her. I thought she was lying, somehow."

"Well." Lydia Lamontagne was standing up straighter than she had been prior. "She wasn't, obviously."

"Obviously." Giles echoed. "Well, Ms. Lamontagne, it appears that due to a trick of Fate you are now the Senior Watcher on station, despite Dawn Summers being the junior Slayer."

"Oh!" Lydia put a hand to her mouth. "I hadn't thought of that."

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in association with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television. _Sanctuary_ is owned by Sanctuary 1 Productions in conjunction with Stage 3 Media. All I own is the idea and the words.

**Author's Note the Second:** Lydia, Phillip, and Nigel were the three Watchers who accompanied Quentin Travers to examine Buffy's fitness as a Slayer in the episode "Checkpoint". They were played by Cynthia Lamontagne, Kris Iyer, and Oliver Muirhead. As is my usual policy, when I use a character from the show who lacks a canonical last name, I have assigned them the last names of the actors who played them on the show.

**Author's Note the Third:** The title of this chapter is taken from a line of dialogue featured in both the 1985 film "Fright Night" and its 2011 remake. To be honest, I find Chris Sarandon's reading of the line in the original to be much better than Colin Farrell's.

**Author's Note the Fourth:** The factoid regarding which parent is more likely to abuse their children is absolutely true. Despite the stereotype of the violent, abusive father, it is the mother who is more likely to turn out to be abusive toward her kids than the father.


	3. Settling In

**Settling In**

**XxxxxxX**

"_Oh, I just love the first day of school, don't you?"_

"_It's the biggest thrill of my life."_

_**Patty and Rizzo** (Susan Buckner and Stockard Channing), "Grease"_

**XxxxxxX**

At the end of the day, Dawn felt that her triumphant return to the life of a High School student went much better, all-in-all, than she had any right to expect. It had started when she walked into her Spanish class.

"May I help you?" The teacher was a short woman with coppery hair, huge bottle-bottom style glasses, and an unusual accent. It wasn't quite Spanish, but it was definitely in the neighborhood.

"Uh, I hope so. I'm Dawn Summers. New student. Are you Mrs., um, is it Iarzagarai?" Dawn handed over her pass. "Mrs. Chambers gave this to me, and I had Mr. Giles in the library co-sign it, since I had to go to him for my books. I, uh, could have been here sooner but I dropped my other books off at my locker."

"That's fine." The teacher read the note, then nodded and dropped it on her desk. "Very good. And its pronounced 'Yar-za-GAIR-eye', not 'eye-ar-zuh-GARY'. But that was a good try. Most of the other students just call me Mrs. Yarza. Go ahead and take a seat. There's one next to Mr. Harris, who needs to try harder to stay awake."

She sat down next to Xander, who was asleep. His legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles, and his head was as far back as it would stretch. Dawn grinned for a moment, then nudged him on the shoulder. "Time to make the donuts, Xander."

Xander shot wide awake in an instant, immediately sitting straight up in his chair. Still not quite coherent, he blurted out "No burlarse del miedo del demonio!"

Dawn giggled. "You okay?"

"Whahuh? Dawn?" Xander rubbed his eyes, unaware that he was now the center of the entire class's attention. "What are you doing here?"

"Hopefully paying more attention that you have been doing, Mr. Harris." Mrs. Iarzagarai said with a sardonic grin. She turned back to the blackboard. "So, now that were all among the conscious, let's return to conjugations of the word 'escushar'. David, why don't you try it?"

Dawn leaned toward Xander and whispered. "I was hoping you'd be in at least one of my classes."

"It is pretty cool that I'll be able to see you first thing every day." They both turned their attention back to the class. Dawn, being already fluent in the language, was having a hard time concentrating, so she spent most of the remaining class time acting as an impromptu tutor for Xander.

"So," Xander asked as they were leaving class. "What do you think of Mrs. Yarza?"

"She seemed okay. Not her fault I already know how to speak Spanish. I'm taking the class for an easy A." Dawn shrugged. "Her accent is strange, though."

"Yeah, not the usual Mexican you hear in California. I think someone once told me she was from Europe." Xander said. "But not Spain, I mean. Somewhere else. Andro-something, I think."

"Andorra?"

"Maybe." It was Xander's turn to shrug.

"That would explain the accent. The Basque version of Spanish is like, completely different from regular Spanish." Dawn reached out and took his hand. At the contact, he jumped a bit, but almost immediately settled down. He looked at her with a smile, and she returned it.

"So what's next for you?" Xander gave her hand a little squeeze. His smile had grown bigger, as if he wasn't quite sure what he'd done to deserve the attention, but what glad for whatever it was.

Dawn thought for a second. "Um. Trig, I think." She fished her schedule out of her pocket and flapped it open with one hand. "Yeah, Trig. With Mr. Lauder."

"Heh. Good luck with that." Xander chuckled. "I've got Biology."

"What does that mean? Good luck with that; what does that mean?"

"Well, how to put it." Xander tapped on his chin in exaggeration. "Mr. Lauder's a pretty good teacher, and a nice enough guy, but he's kind of old and he get's distracted pretty easily. If its a pop quiz day, count on someone asking him about his experiences in the Korean War, at which point the class will switch from Trig to history."

Dawn giggled. "That's silly."

"But entertaining! Anyway, I'd walk you to your locker, but I've got to stop by mine, and its in the other direction." He gave her hand another squeeze. "Let me see your schedule real quick?" She handed him the paper. "Okay, looks like we'll be seeing each other again at lunch and then in PE. And hey, you and Willow are both in Computer Science. She's also in P.E with us." He handed her back the schedule.

"No classes with Jesse?" Dawn looked at the schedule, then folded it and shoved it back in her pocket.

"Nope. Just lunch."

Dawn suddenly remembered her first problem of the day. "Oh, hey... I don't suppose there's a place to buy, like, a school t-shirt and some gym shorts, is there?"

"The shirt you can get at the school store. The shorts? I don't know. Check with one of the coaches. I've got to go that way."

"Okey doke. I'll see you at lunch. Wish me luck!" Dawn gave Xander a wave, and then he was lost in the crowd.

It turned out that it had been pop-quiz day, and as Xander predicted, someone deflected it by getting the teacher, Mr. Lauder, talking about the Watergate Scandal and Richard Nixon. It took Dawn longer than normal to get her World History book out of her locker, and she arrived at class just as the bell was ringing. Unfortunately, that meant Dawn had to sit next to Cordelia Chase. Dawn wasn't particularly in the mood, but apparently Cordelia was.

"Oh look, the new Girl." Cordelia smirked to her coterie, all of whom were arrayed in the desks around her. Cordy examined Dawn with a discerning eye. "One would think someone from Beverly Hills would know better than to hang around with the freaks and the losers. Guess you're just not 90120 material."

Dawn rankled. She'd never had a chance to meet Cordelia Chase while she was alive, but she talked to her on the phone occasionally. She had heard stories from Buffy and Xander and Willow of how brave she was, how honest and forthright, and how loyal. She'd also heard the stories from Willow and Xander of how she had been the queen bee of the high school and got there by being the cattiest, most shallow, most mean-spirited bitch anyone had ever met. So it rankled. Dawn had little patience for bullies, and this Cordelia had yet to grow up and out of her bullying stage. This Cordelia had to be taught that some people couldn't be bullied.

Dawn didn't even smirk. "You're Cordelia Chase, right?"

"You've heard of me?" As Cordelia spoke, Dawn could almost smell her shallowness. It was like a pervasive odor.

"Oh, sure! You see, I asked this kid outside of the office how to find the most popular girl in school, and he said all I'd have to do is look around for the most arrogant, self-centered, selfish back-stabbing slut-faced ho-bag around. He also mentioned how you'd be wearing far too much badly applied makeup and would be perfumed like a French whore-house. But now that I've met you, I think he was mistaken. Your makeup isn't badly applied at all." Dawn almost laughed. Everyone who had just heard her insult Cordelia Chase to her face was staring at her in shock.

"Did – did you just say there was something wrong with my makeup?" Cordelia's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Sure. If that's all you got out of what I just said, take it and run with it. Why not." Dawn gave Cordelia a nice friendly smile.

"If you girls are finished talking about whatever it is you are talking about, I'd like to get back to the subject of the Middle Ages." Miss Rossdale had written a list of facts on the blackboard and was now facing the class. Specifically, she was staring at Cordelia and Dawn.

Having fired her own shots across Cordelia's bow, and having scored a considerable hit, in her opinion, Dawn proceeded to ignore the other girl for the rest of the class. Not only did Dawn's seeming indifference utterly annoy "Queen C", it helped Dawn get through the history lesson without getting bored.

Lunch was the only tense time during the entire day.

She met Xander outside of the school's cafeteria, picked up their meals from the line, and joined Willow and Jesse, both of whom were packing bag lunches. It had amused Dawn to look at the contrast. Willow's meal was in multiple parts, and included a carefully constructed sandwich with what looked like turkey, a piece of a lettuce leaf, and a handful of bean sprouts on whole grain bread, a small Tupperware container of fruit, some celery sticks, a resealable pot of what had to be low-fat ranch dressing, and a juice box. All very healthy Jesse's bag lunch, on the other hand, was bologna on white bread with mayonnaise, put together in the classic 'slap-slap-squish' method, a Snickers bar, and a can of warm Mountain Dew.

Xander and Dawn, in comparison, were eating something semi-liquid, reddish in color, with lumps that might have been meat, poured over rice. It was accompanied by overcooked green beans and some white slurry that might have been either mashed potatoes or oatmeal. Always an adventuresome eater, Dawn dug in with gusto while Xander just stared at her.

"Whah?" She asked, him, her mouth half full of food.

"How can you eat that stuff? I mean, I think of myself as having an iron stomach -"

"It's true. He once drank an entire jar of pickled onions on a bet." Jesse said around a mouthful of bologna sandwich.

"Oh! And there was the time that he beat Tucker Wells and Paul Driver at maple syrup chugging." Willow added.

Dawn swallowed her mouthful of whatever it was. In her head, she was labeling it 'beef tips a'la ketchup sauce', but to be honest she wasn't sure about the beef part. "Maple syrup chugging? What's maple syrup chugging?"

Xander had a hand up to his forehead. He seemed embarrassed "It was a silly game."

"Xander and Tucker and Paul had a bet to see who could chug an entire 32 ounce bottle of Mrs. Butterworth syrup in the quickest time. They had to finish the entire bottle. Xander just tipped the thing up," Jesse mimed the action. "And sucked it all down. Tucker had to stop in the middle, and Paul only got about three-quarters of the way before puking. It was awesome!"

Dawn started giggling uncontrollably, joining both Willow and Jesse in their merriment at Xander's expense. At first Xander just scowled, but eventually even he was laughing at himself. "Yeah, awesome. I was sweating maple syrup for two days after that." Xander chuckled at his own folly. "Not my smartest moment."

Dawn reached out and covered his hand with hers and gave it a friendly squeeze. "That's okay, I like you anyway."

Jesse looked at their hands together, then looked to Dawn, then Xander. He turned to Willow. "Is there, like, something going on between them?"

"Well..." Willow began. "Its more like they're going to see if there could be something between them, but there's not really a lot between them right now. If you know what I mean." Both Dawn and Xander blushed. Neither could meet each other's eyes, nor the eyes of Willow or Jesse.

"I totally don't. What are you saying?"

Willow sighed. "There's something going on between them. In the beginning stages of going on, I mean."

"I thought so. There were all these clues." Jesse leered at the pair. "All those coy looks and subtle comments, and the flowers and the poetry. Its just so romantic." Jesse fluttered his eyes and put his hands to his heart. "A real Hallmark moment." He settled down, suddenly serious. "And how do you feel about this recent development?"

Willow shrugged. "Why would it matter to me who Xander dates?"

"Oh come on." Jesse was scandalized. At his exclamation, Willow blushed from her scalp to her toes. "How long have we known each other? I know better than that, Willow Danielle Rosenberg! Don't try to, uh, do something that you would do when you don't want to admit how you feel."

Xander turned to Dawn and whispered, just loud enough to hear, "What in the heck is he talking about?"

But Dawn was shaking her head. "Nope, sorry. You'll have to go to the source for that. My lips are-" She was suddenly and abruptly silent. Dawn's friends saw her go pale as a sheet, and her breathing hitched as she stared past Jesse's shoulder.

"Dawn, what's the matter. What's going on?" Dawn's head tracked as the person she was staring at moved across the cafeteria. Xander tried again. "You're beginning to scare us, Dawnster. What's going on?"

"What?" Dawn would recognize Warren Mears anywhere. Anywhere. But the 'her' from the here-and-now would have no idea. She found this subterfuge was difficult to maintain, because what she wanted to do was chase the young man down and rip his spine out of his back with her bare hands and damn the consequences. But she couldn't. There were too many things that would go wrong if... "Oh, sorry... just saw someone I thought I recognized. But its not him. Its someone different.

Warren Mears. Dawn forced herself to look away from him.

"Who?" Xander was looking around, trying to find the person she was talking about. "That guy? Warren? In the white button down, talking to the girl in the plaid over by the drink machines."

Dawn nodded.

"Oh... yeah." Willow was nodding. "Warren Mears. He's a senior. Won the state-wide science fair three years running, though he didn't compete this year. He's some sort of computer engineering genius. I heard somewhere that he's been accepted at Cal Tech, MIT, Georgia Tech, Princeton. I also heard that his folks can't afford to send him to any of those schools, so he's got to stay here at UC Sunnydale."

"Yeah, well, he looks like someone I used to know back at Beverly High." Dawn went back to her lunch.

Xander was looking at her in that in-depth way he had that no one seemed to notice. "From your expression, the person back at Beverly must have run over your puppy or something. That was a serious mad-on, Dawn. Anything I should know about?"

"Not really. I mean, I'll tell you some day, but not right now. Just... not a pleasant memory. I sort of had a flashback, you know?" Dawn shrugged. "I'm just not ready to discuss it yet.

"Okay. We'll be here when you need us." Xander rubbed her shoulder.

"Thanks. I appreciate it. I really do." She flashed Xander her widest smile, then grinned even bigger when she saw the boy blush.

After lunch, Dawn found out that her English class was more of a Literature class. The teacher was going through one of T.S. Eliot's poems, entitled _The Hollow Men, _about British veterans returning from the battlefields of World War I and the problems they faced reintegrating with society after the horrors of war. In Dawn's opinion it had an interesting premise and some intriguing wordplay, but overall was dull and lifeless. Which might have been the point, she conceded.

Computer Science class brought Dawn back into contact with Willow, who was, despite her statements of the night before, friendly and helpful, if slightly snarkish. The fact that Cordelia and two of her brown-nosing followers, Harmony and Aura, were also in the class was just the cherry on top. Computer Science It also brought Dawn into contact with a person she'd only heard stories about: Jenny Calendar, class's teacher.

Ms. Calendar seemed likeable enough, and seemed to be handy at showing students how to use the school's computers to good effect. But knowing that her name wasn't really Jenny Calendar, and knowing how she was tied in to Buffy and Angel, sort of put Dawn on edge.

She had no idea what to do about Jana Kalderash. All during class, just thinking about it almost drove Dawn to distraction. _Would she still become peripherally involved with the Scoobies this time? If so, would she still end up in a romantic relationship with Rupert Giles? And what about the fact that she's connected to Angel's curse? Angel. What to do about Angel. If Buffy never get's involved with Angel, is there still a chance his curse will be broken and he'll go back to being Angelus? I need to make sure Angel doesn't come within sniffing distance of Buffy._

"Miss Summers, are you paying attention?" Dawn blinked and started at her desk, realizing she had missed a question by zoning out.

"Sorry about that." She said sheepishly.

"Try not to let it happen too often. Now, if you would all..." And Dawn was once again zoning out, considering the things she needed to do. _Wait... if what Buffy told me was right, Angel's been in town for weeks and is waiting for her to arrive. If I'm going to do something to get Angel away from Buffy, I need to do it in the next couple of days._

The second time, Dawn came out of the zone quickly enough to catch the question. "We'd have to make a chance to the CSS Stylesheet."

"Very good. See what paying attention in class can do for you?" Miss Calendar turned toward another student and asked them a question, leaving Dawn to her thoughts. _So do I confront Jana Kalderash about the curse? Do I confront Angel about the curse? What happens Angel refuses to stay away? Can I beat him in a fight? For that matter, can I make myself stake him if I need to? _She thought about these things for the entire class, and at the end, she was no closer to answers.

Dawn had been able to buy a school t-shirt (it was mustard yellow, with a crimson pig on the front of it) and a pair of ugly gym shorts (they were red, with yellow piping; the colors matched the colors of the t-shirt), so she got to participate in her P.E class alongside Willow, Xander, and Jesse. The class was broken up into two teams for volleyball, during which Dawn became somewhat of a sensation by demonstrating a rather powerful spike.

Dawn invited Willow, Jesse, and Xander to the library after school for the meet-and-greet.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn and Xander entered first, still chatting about the volleyball game and how well the two of them thought the individual members of their little group had done. If they happened to occasionally bump into each other, or brush each other's hands or arms, that was fine too. They were trailed by Willow and Jesse. Jesse was watching the interaction between the two with some amusement. Willow was faking it.

Rupert Giles and Lydia Lamontagne were sitting at the research table, talking over what looked like cups of tea. Their discussion ended when the four teenagers walked into the library. Giles stood, while Lydia remained seated, but both looked surprised and slightly irritated.

"Hey, Giles. How was your day?" Dawn asked as she sat.

"It was fairly ordinary. Nothing exciting. And you?"

Dawn couldn't tell if he was feigning interest or if it was genuine courtesy, so she gave Giles the benefit of the doubt. "We kicked butt at volleyball."

"Dawn is mistress of the close spike!" Jesse mussed her hair, causing Dawn to bat his hands away. "Little Miss Future Olympian!" Dawn rolled her eyes.

"It wasn't bad for my first day at a new school. Vice Principle Snyder is a rodent. I couldn't help notice that Ms. Calendar, the computer teacher is so pretty even I think she's a little hot." Dawn said. "Oh, and did you know that the Black Death sparked the rise of the Middle Class?" The four teenagers sat at the other end of the table, two on each side.

"Yes, actually, I was already aware of that." Giles put his hands on his waist, pushing back the tails of his tweed sport coat.

"Really?"

"Yes, Miss Summers. You see, when one attains a PhD in history, you're required to actually know a little bit about the subject. History, I mean. But I am glad to hear your day went well." Giles voice was polite, but his tones were clipped.

"Wait, you have a PhD in history?" Buffy had never said anything about Giles having a PhD. "So why aren't we calling you Doctor Giles?"

Willow nodded at Dawn's question.

"Well, I felt it would be best if I raised as few questions as possible. Given that I am working as a high school librarian as a cover identity..."

"Oh, right. How many PhDs in history are going to take a job as a High School librarian. That's brilliant." Xander smiled at the older man. "Hide in plain sight!"

"Er, yes. Precisely." Giles was nonplussed.

"That's cool." Dawn put a thumb up. "I guess that's one reason why you're Buffy's Watcher. You've got a PhD."

"Actually..." Lydia began, then stopped.

"Actually?" Dawn turned toward her own Watcher. "You were saying?"

"Well... I was about to say that actually, all Field Watchers have doctorates. Its part of the job requirement." Lydia put her hand above her heart. "I, for example, have a PhD in Folklore and Mythology. Nigel's doctorate is in Biblical history, I believe. I can't recall what Phillip's doctorate is in."

Giles said, "I believe he's a Linguist."

"Okay, now you're all really impressing me. That's very cool. So... speaking of the other Watcher guys, I thought we were going to do my Slayer evaluation this afternoon. Where are they?"

"Nigel decided that, since I'm now officially your Watcher, it might be better for just me and Mister Giles to do your evaluation, to talk to you about a training schedule, work out some patrol routes, and so on."

"That makes a lot of sense, I guess." Dawn smiled at her Watcher. "Oh, hey, do you have a place to live yet?"

Lydia was thrown by the question. "What? Why do you ask?"

"Well, you can't stay at the hotel all the time, right?" At Lydia's nod, Dawn continued. "I was thinking about it during volleyball, and it occurred to me that there's a couple of spare rooms at my place, and you could have one, since you're going to be around. And it'll give us a chance to get used to each other."

"That's an excellent idea, but I'd have to talk to your parents first. If they approve, I'd love to." Lydia smiled at Dawn.

She'd expected a comment or a question about her parents. Dawn feigned a hurt look, then immediately covered it up. "My parent's are, uh... they died, Lydia. Both of them. I lost them in a plane crash last July. They were on their way to Rome, a second honeymoon, and their plane exploded and crashed into the ocean." Dawn took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It was hard, she discovered, to feign caring about people who might never have actually existed except as names on paper.

"You okay, Dawn?" Willow to the rescue. The red head put a hand on Dawn's shoulder and squeezed.

"Yeah, peachy. I was a wreck for a while, but I'm getting over it." Dawn took another deep breath, trying to look like she was forcibly avoiding the bad emotions. "Anyway, Lydia, since its just me in the house, I guess it up to me. So would you like to stay at my house?"

"You're in a house all by yourself? How did you buy a house? You're only sixteen, right?" Willow's forehead was scrunched up in the question-look Dawn recognized.

"I'm an emancipated minor." Dawn said. "Which is a fancy way of saying I'm on my own. The house is really owned by my trust fund, and that's run by my lawyers. I won't technically own the house until I turn 21. Same with my car."

"I was wondering how you ended up with a Mercedes." Xander said with a laugh. "A trust fund? So, uh, are you rich?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I sort of am." Dawn looked him right in the eye. "Will that be a problem? I know, uh..." Dawn shrugged, trying to telepathically let Xander know what she was thinking.

"A prob – no! No, not at all. But when we go out, I'm definitely going to let you grab the check more often. I'm all in favor of equality and letting the girl pay occasionally, especially when she's loaded." His grin made Dawn laugh.

"Cool!" Dawn sat up in her chair and nudged Xander. "So where do we start. We are still doing the evaluation, right?"

"But..." Lydia looked from Xander to Jesse to Willow. "Dawn, the evaluation and our discussions are not... There are certain things that we have to keep confidential."

"Oh, its okay." Dawn said. "Anything you need to tell me you can tell the guys."

"No, I don't think so. There needs to be -" Lydia began.

"Okay," Dawn interrupted. "Let's put it this way, we can have this talk in front of them, or we can do it in private and I'll just tell them everything once we're done. Either way, I'm not going to keep them in the dark when it comes to Slaying."

"Excuse me, but do you really think it is wise, encouraging these children to become involved?" While the question was framed in polite tones, it was clear from her face that Lydia was upset.

"I'm not encouraging them, I'm channeling them." Dawn replied. Like Lydia, she was keeping her tones polite. She had expected this topic to be raised and Dawn figured it would be better to get it over with as quickly as possible.

"Channeling them?" Giles interjected with a question. "How do you mean?"

"I mean that they aren't going to sit on the sidelines just because I, or you Lydia, or you, Mr. Giles, tells them to stay home. You can try to bench them, but they're not going to stay benched." Dawn turned to Xander. "Right?"

"Damn straight." Xander's jaw was set. "Now that I know vampires exist, there's no way I'd sit on the sidelines and pretend like nothing wrong wrong."

"Yeah!" Jesse put a hand on Xander's shoulder. "I'm, uh, you know... its like, how could you look at yourself in the mirror?"

Willow was nodding. "I'm not anxious to come up against a monster, but I want to help! I _need_ to help!"

"See? I can't keep them away from the fight. They'd just go behind my back." Dawn explained. "So since we can't control my friends, we might as well make them as prepared as we can and use them ourselves."

"But... but that's just not done." Lydia was apparently building up a full head of steam. The Slayer has always fought alone, in the shadows."

"Yes, I've already pointed that out." Giles said from the sidelines. "She ignored me."

"Ignored you? Why?" Lydia turned to Dawn. "As your Watcher, I forbid you from doing this."

"You 'forbid me'?" Dawn chuckled. "Ooh, she'd forbidden me from doing something. Whatever will I do?"

"Yes, I forbid you!" Lydia had missed Dawn trying to make it a joke and was taking it very seriously. "Its bad enough that you insist on... on socializing. I at least understand that, and while it goes against my training as a Watcher I'm not going to stand in the way of you having friends and getting your education and living as normal a life as possible."

"Oh, thanks." Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Don't be smart." Lydia said. "Look, I know that you missed the early training you would have received had the Council been able to detect you were a potential when you were a child. I also know that the circumstances of your Calling are obviously unusual and unknown. But that's no reason to throw out centuries and centuries of Tradition." The older woman took a deep breath and let it out, slowly. "I can see the... the attractiveness... of involving your friends in this fight, but it cannot be. You are the Slayer. You are on the front line of a war that is kept out of the sight of ordinary people, not only for your protection but for the protection of everyone else around you. They..."

"Lydia, let me ask you a question." Dawn interrupted.

"All right." Lydia looked thrown off that her tirade had been interrupted.

"If you know, what is the average lifespan of a Slayer once she's been called?" Dawn's face gave nothing away, but she was beginning a maneuver as carefully planned as that of a military operation.

"Around eighteen months, give or take a month or so." Lydia looked uncomfortable about the subject. Willow gasped at this information. Jesse was studying his hands, and Xander was shaking his head, as if to deny everything he was hearing.

Dawn walked to where he was sitting and knelt in front of him. "It's okay. I know I'm on a timer. I'm dealing. So, a year and a half is the average. I intend on beating the average." She leaned in, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. They held each other for a long while. Finally, she pulled back. "You okay?" Xander nodded and she laid a gentle kiss on his temple.

Dawn turned to note the two Watchers paying attention to anything but her interaction with Xander. "So, Mr. Giles. Who was the longest-lasting Slayer?"

Without hesitating, Lydia said. "Nichole Robin Wood of New York City. She lasted as Slayer from 1970 to 1977, when she was killed in a fight with William the Bloody. She was three weeks and two days away from her seventh anniversary as the Slayer when she died."

"How old was she when she died?" Willow's voice was shaky.

"Twenty four. She was twenty four."

"Who's William the Bloody?" Jesse asked.

"He's, uh, a particularly violent vampire." Lydia began. "William the Bloody enjoys causing chaos wherever he goes. No respect for authority, even among other vampires. He's called 'Spike' by some because of his fondness for using railroad spikes to torture his victims."

Xander was about to say something, but Dawn put a finger to his lips. "Later, okay? Who's the second longest-lasting Slayer, Lydia? Mr. Giles?"

Lydia looked at Giles, a questioning look on her face. Giles thought for a moment, then spoke. "I believe that would be Amelia Duncan of Chicago, Illinois. She lasted five years, three months, between 1963 and 1968. Her death called Antoinette Placeville of Nice, France, who was Nichole Wood's predecessor."

"Who was the third longest-lasting Slayer?" Dawn was getting closer to her point.

"Ah... that would be... hurm." Giles went silent. Lydia was staring into space.

"Could it... I think it might have been Sally Martin, of Leeds." Lydia said at least. "She lasted somewhere around five years. Or perhaps Evike Tokacs of Budapest. She also made it around five years."

"Right. Okay, so the best any Slayer has been able to do is between five and seven years. The average is only a year and a half. How about the other end of the scale? What were the three shortest tenures?" Dawn knew this would be bad, but she had to know.

"Ah, well, the shortest tenure for any slayer was Rapinder Johar of Calcutta. She was called in 1891 and lasted for two days. She died in her first fight with a vampire." Giles shook her head. "The tragedy was how young she was. Rapinder Johar was also the youngest Slayer ever called; she was only eight."

"_EIGHT?_ My god!" Willow put her face in her hands. "I cannot... that poor girl." She stood, her hands still covering her eyes. "I – I need air! I've got to... I need air!" Willow dropped her hands and ran for the door.

Jesse stood up to follow her, then looked to Dawn and the Watchers. "I'll make sure she's okay."

The four people looked at each other. No one wanted to say anything. "Yes, as I said it was tragic." Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them. "Um... number two and three on the list of shortest lived Slayers aren't much better. The second shortest was Irlinka Androva, from Saint Petersburg. She managed to survive six days. She was eleven. And if I remember correctly, the third was, ah... what was her name. The girl from Tokyo."

"Yes, Shimada Yoko." Lydia closed her eyes. "She's a truly tragic tale. Slayer Shimada was not only young when she was called – only thirteen – but she wasn't just killed but was turned. She'd been the Slayer for fifteen days when she met the master vampire Rodrigo Perez, who turned her. For two hundred years, the Beautiful Devil, as she was known, terrorized southern Japan until she was finally slain by Slayer Andrea Rousimoff in 1857."

Xander, who looked angry enough to rip the head from a demon with his bare hands, asked, "So what was the point of the history lesson, Dawn?"

"In a second. I promise. Mr. Giles, out of the three longest-lives Slayers, did any of them break the 'I work alone' rule like I intend to?" Dawn asked.

"Ah, well... er... yes. Actually, all three of them did." Giles said. "Amelia Duncan was assisted by her father, who was a retired Army officer. Nichole Wood was assisted by a pair of New York City police officers and a private detective, and had many other connections in her community. She even has a son. Evike Tokacs was married and her husband assisted her."

Xander's anger was visibly leaching. Dawn guessed that he had figured out her line of reasoning. "And the other three?" he asked. "The tragedies? Did they follow tradition?"

"Ah, I see your point. Yes, yes they did." Giles nodded. "In fact, they were taken from their families and raised by their Watchers, trained from a young age to do nothing but consider the mission."

"What does that tell you about the tradition of the Slayer acting alone?" Dawn asked. "I know what it tells me."

The two Watchers stared at her for a moment. "All right, then, tell us. In your infinite wisdom, garnered as it was by your sixteen years of life and your three days as the Slayer, what does it tell you?" Lydia asked. She was smiling, but it was a tight smile.

"Relax, Lydia. We're all friends here. Want a hug?" Dawn snarked with a friendly grin.

The Watcher shook her head and smiled. Dawn was suddenly struck by the fact that she had probably overestimated Lydia's age. Where at first Dawn figured she was somewhere in her mid-30s, it was apparent that Lydia was at eight to ten years younger than that. "No, but ice cream later, maybe. What does the examples of the Slayers we've talked about tell you?"

"What it tells me is I want no part of this Tradition. Its pretty clear that the entire operating alone thing does not lead to long-life for the Slayer." Before either Watcher could protest, she continued. "I'm not a tool. I'm not replaceable. I am not a cog in a machine. I am not a fire-and-forget missile that can be used and discarded. Neither is Buffy." Dawn stared at the Watchers. "So right now, I want you to make me a deal, the both of you. I want you to stop seeing me as the Slayer, who just happens to be a girl. I want you to start seeing me – and Buffy, when she gets here – as girls who just happen to be Slayers. You guys do that, and I'll do everything you ask that I think is reasonable."

The Slayers were nodding. "That sounds reasonable, I think. How about you, Mr. Giles?" Lydia turned to her colleague. There was something in the woman's eyes that Dawn couldn't read.

"Yes, um, I agree. Imminently reasonable." Giles gave Dawn and Xander a weak smile. "Given my own Slayer's unusual background and history, I wasn't planning on abiding by tradition over-much in any case."

"Good. Glad we got that settled." She put a hand on Xander's shoulders and gave him a rub. Xander looked up at her. She thought his eyes were strange. There was something behind them. It didn't feel like a bad thing, just a thing.

"Xan, you okay?"

"Yeah. Just thinking about _Dead Poet's Society."_

Xander's answer caused Dawn to giggle. "Okay, then. What about _Dead Poet's Society_?"

"Carpe diem." Xander reached up to catch her hand in his own.

"Oh." She blushed. To hide it, Dawn turned back to the Watchers. She was about to ask what was next, when something occurred to her. "Oh, and Lydia, Mr. Giles... there's one exception. I'm not going to be undertaking the Cruciamentum, and neither is Buffy Summers. Don't even bother trying."

"How did..." Lydia's eyes were wide. Instead of continuing, she swallowed, glanced at Xander, and said, "We'll discuss this later."

"No. There's nothing to discuss. Its not going to happen. Try it. I dare you. I'm all for us cooperating to accomplish the mission, and I think you both are good people, but if you think you're justified pulling that shit? You'll never see me again and I'll make sure Buffy disappears as well."

"The Council isn't going to like that," Giles said.

"You're assuming I care."

Xander was seething. "What's the Cruciawhatsis?"

"Cruciamentum." Dawn supplied. Her eyes hadn't left Lydia's. "Its a, I guess you can call it a coming-of-age ceremony imposed on the Slayer by the Council. They drug her, then lock her in a building with a vampre. She has to slay it without her strength or speed. The Council calls it a 'test of resourcefulness'; I call it attempted murder."

"Yeah. You're not doing that." Xander was adamant.

"To be honest, I never agreed with the necessity of that test." Giles finally said after a long moment of silence. "It's always seemed... barbaric."

"But its – right. Tradition kills Slayers. Fine. It goes against everything I've been trained to believe, but I don't want to see a Slayer die needlessly either." Lydia slumped. "As Mr. Giles says, the Council won't like it if we refuse to administer the Cruciamentum. But we have two years to figure something out."

They all sat in silence again before Xander sighed. "So how about the evaluation? We still going to do that? What's involved in that?"

"Well, _we _can proceed, I think." Lydia said. She waved toward Giles. "You can watch, okay? If we have a question you can answer, go ahead, but otherwise..."

Dawn nudged Xander, who held up both his hands and grinned. "Right. I'll be sidelines boy. Quiet as a church-mouse."

"Church-mice are actually pretty noisy. They squeak quite a bit." Giles commented out of nowhere. "Now, Miss Summers..."

"Dawn, Mr. Giles. Call me Dawn. We're all friends here."

"Yes, of course." Lydia picked up a clipboard from the library's counter. "Now, Dawn... the first part of the evaluation are some questions."

"What, like a quiz?"

"Ah, no. Not as such." Giles answered.

"As Mr. Giles says. There aren't any right or wrong answers. They're just questions that will help us evaluate your non-physical gifts." Lydia answered. "Now, the first set of questions involves prescient dreams. You told us this morning that you had a dream that informed you that you were the Slayer. Did this dream seem, um, more or less real than your regular dreams seem?"

"What do you mean, more realistic?" Dawn asked. Internally, Dawn was suppressing a smirk. _This is perfect. Exactly what I need to use future knowledge without raising suspicions._

"Were they more vivid? Brighter colors?" Lydia thought for a moment. "Did the imagery you saw look true to life, regardless of how bizarre the images actually were?"

Before Dawn could answer, Giles threw a small crystal sphere, about the size of a billiard ball, at her. Dawn caught it out of the air. "Juggle these please?" The first sphere was swiftly followed by two more.

Dawn had never juggled anything in her life, but she quickly figured it out. "Okay, juggling."

"Could you answer the question while you're juggling, please?"

"I think they want you to multitask, Dawnie." Xander chuckled.

"Right." She flipped the three balls into the air one after the other. "What was the question again?"

Lydia Lamontagne spoke up. "Was your prescient dream more or less realistic-seeming than your regular dreams?"

"Oh, uh... more realistic. It didn't feel like I was dreaming at all." Dawn gasped as Giles flipped a fourth ball into her hands. Without pausing, Dawn incorporated it into her juggling routine. Xander clapped quietly, then gave her the thumbs up, which she returned by sticking out her tongue at the boy.

"In your dream, did anyone communicate with you, or did you just see images? And if they spoke, did you get the impression that they were speaking English, or some other language? And was what they showed you or told you cryptic, or was it clearly understood?"

"I think we should let Dawn a chance to answer, Ms. Lamontagne, before we load her down with more questions." Giles interrupted. He flipped a fifth ball at her, which she also caught and juggled.

"Oh, right. Sorry. So, did anyone communicate with you in this dream, or did you just see images?" Lydia asked.

"Uh, one of the previous Slayers spoke to me." Giles flipped her a sixth ball.

"You're pretty good at that." Xander noted. "How many do you think you can do at once?"

"I, uh, don't know. The first five were easy. I'm having to keep my eye on these more." To anyone watching, Dawn was passing the balls into the air and through her hands with ease.

"Hey, what did we miss?" Jesse called from the door. He had his arm around Willow's shoulders.

"Hey, Willow." Dawn said. Her eyes never left the balls. "You doing better?"

"Oh, yes, it's amazing what a crying fit can do for you. Are you... Hey, you can juggle? That's fun!" Willow was still a little pale, but she no longer looked like she was going to fall apart. "Think you can teach me?"

"Yeah, I'd like to learn, too." Jesse nodded.

Dawn looked over to Xander quickly, and received a nod and a grin. "I could try. Of course, I'm not sure how I'm doing this. I've never juggled before."

"And yet you're doing splendidly." Giles flipped a seventh ball into her hands. "Just so you know, the world record is eleven balls at once, and that is from someone who doesn't have the heightened coordination of a Slayer." He paused as he watched her. "You mentioned that you thought the girl who spoke to you in your dream was a previous Slayer. Was she dressed as if she was relatively recent, or was she dressed in an older fashion?"

Dawn tried to look as if she were thinking about it. "Definitely recent. Her clothing was pretty up to date as far as style's concerned. Assuming she was real, I'd say she was from sometime in the last ten years or so."

"So you think she was called in the last decade." Giles retrieved a book from his office and began flipping through it. He paused at one page, and tossed Dawn an eighth ball. Dawn fumbled and almost dropped it, but eventually got the eight balls going in rhythm.

"In the past ten years there were five Slayers called. Other than yourself, of course. The girl... did she look Caucasian, Asian, or African?" Giles flipped through a few more pages.

"Mr. Giles?" Lydia's expression asked the unspoken question.

"Trying to confirm that the girl she saw in the dream was actually a Slayer." Giles flipped a couple of more pages in the book. "Was she Caucasian, Asian, or African, Dawn?"

"Caucasian."

"That narrows it down to three." Giles muttered. He was still flipping through the book. "Was she blonde or brunette?"

"Brunette." A bead of sweat trailed down the side of her brow and onto her cheek. She was really concentrating on not dropping anything now.

"Brunette. That's leaves two. Did she have light skin, or was she deeply tan?" Giles had stopped and was looking back and forth between two pages near the end of the book.

"Uh... light skin. She didn't look tanned at all." Dawn spared a glance in Giles's direction and saw he was tapping a page while showing it to Lydia.

"India Cohen." Lydia said. "The Slayer who preceded Buffy Summers. Your predecessor's predecessor, as it were."

Giles held the book open in front of her. "Have a look. Is this her?"

Dawn stole a glance at the page he was tapping. She recognized the book he was holding immediately. It was Carson's _The Slayer Concordance, Volume 74_ . Giles had given her this exact book for her birthday before they had to flee Sunnydale. Her copy had been printed in 2002, and listed every Slayer called between 1901 and 2001, including Buffy, Kendra, and Faith, with a picture and short biography and a listing of their accomplishments as Slayers. The copy Giles had given her had been lost in the Sunnydale crater. From the looks of things, this printing didn't include Buffy yet. "Yep. That's her."

_Kendra and Faith. What am I going to do about Kendra and Faith?_ She was still working on this part of the plan. _If I keep Buffy alive, Kendra won't be called, and that's not so bad, is it? She'd still be safe with her Watcher in Kingston. But Faith... Faith is going to become hunted. That vampire, what was his name. Taquitos? No. Shit, that's what Buffy called him. Without being a Slayer, Faith is nothing more than a quick meal. What am I going to do?_

Giles read the information in the book and said, "It says she was a very successful Slayer. Lasted almost four years. Died after trading herself to a master vampire in exchange for some innocent hostages. Voluntarily allowed herself to be fed on."

Giles put the book down and Jesse picked it up, much to the older Watcher's irritation. "India Sophia Cohen. Born 1978. Called March 1993, Died November 1996. Killed by the voodoo houngan known as the Wanderer. Eliminated... hmm..." Jesse read out-loud. "So this Buffy you guys said was coming, she's only been the Slayer for, like, five months?"

"Yes." Giles said. "Only five months. But she's already destroyed Lothos, one of the oldest and most powerful vampires in existence at the time. Its quite an accomplishment."

"If we could return to the questions?" When Dawn nodded, Lydia wrote on her clipboard, then asked, "Have you had any more prescient dreams?".

_I know what I'm going to do, _Dawn thought to herself._ I'm going to get Faith here. Even if she is never Chosen, she'd be safer living here under the wings of two Slayers than she would just with her Watcher in Boston. Kendra, you're on your own. _Dawn felt kind of bad about that, but it wasn't like she knew Kendra like she'd known Faith. She'd only met Kendra the one time.

"Um, yes, several. But I don't know what they all mean. One of them had that same girl. India?" At Giles's nod, Dawn continued. "She told me about the Scourge of Europe. In another one she told me about Buffy Summers. I had one last night which showed me this girl – I don't know who she is. It was just images, no visits from my Spirit Guide."

"What do you mean by your Spirit Guide?" Willow asked.

"The girl whose been appearing in my dreams. India Cohen. My spirit guide." Dawn felt bad about lying, but how else to explain that she not only knew about India Cohen from reading the very book Giles was looking at, but that she'd read the books five years in the future.

"Oh, yeah."

"So far it sounds as if your prescient dreams have all been informational, as opposed to being warnings." Lydia said.

"Anyway, last night I had a dream about a girl." Dawn said. "I didn't recognize her, but she looked younger than I am. Anyway, she was dressed in blue jeans and a rock concert t-shirt. Standing next to her was this older woman, about your age, Mr. Giles. And the older lady, she said that, uh... what was it she said, exactly. Something about how I had to have faith in her, and that she wouldn't be able to watch over the girl anymore if we didn't help her, and that something horrible was coming, and that I was to have faith and keep her close to me. She said if I had to keep faith and protect it, and if I failed, the girl would be lost to darkness."

Dawn caught the balls one-by-one and put them down on the table nearby. Then she closed her eyes. _And the Oscar goes too... _ "The lady had a British accent. Almost like yours, Lydia. And after she finished speaking, this huge thing came out of the shadows and... it. Uh, did things to her. The older lady. Bad things. Horrible things."

"What sort of bad things?" Lydia asked.

_How should I know, _Dawn thought to herself. _Faith never told anyone what Taquitos had done to her first Watcher. Just that she'd witnessed it and that it was nightmare fuel._ Dawn kept her eyes closed and just shook her head. She felt Xander put his arm around her waist. Dawn leaned into him and hid her face in his neck. The very image of the traumatized teenage girl.

"Dawn, are you okay?" Willow came close and began rubbing Dawn's back. It's okay. It was just a dream. Even if it was one of those psychic dreams you were talking about, you can still fix it." Willow's concern just increased Dawn's shame at lying to everyone, and she burrowed even further into Xander's shirt.

"Right. Let's take a break from the questions while Dawn collects herself." Giles took off his glasses and began to rub them.

"No, I can go on." Dawn wiped her eyes on Xander's shirt. The emotion might have been faked, but every little girl knew how to generate tears on demand. "Sorry, its just, what happened to the lady was monstrous. And she sounded so, so desperate."

"Desperate? Do you think this dream represented something that was urgent?" Lydia put the clipboard down. "Some impending apocalypse, perhaps?

Dawn shook her head. "No, it felt more personal than that. More... more intimate." Dawn's mind whirled. How to get the message across without it sounding contrived. "Like... it wasn't world-shattering. What I mean is, well, sort of like the immediate danger would only affect those two people, the lady and the girl, but if something wasn't done there'd be long-term consequences for other people."

"Which people?" Xander asked.

"Us." Giles began to say something, but Dawn interrupted. "Not just the Slayers or the Watchers, but everyone in this room. It was like... if we don't save the lady and protect the girl from this bad thing that happens, something even worse happens down the line."

"But the dream wasn't clear about who they were? No names were given, or locations?" Lydia pulled a pen and a small notepad out of her jacket pocket. "Well then, perhaps were should see what we can do about interpreting your dream, shall we?"

_This should be fun. Easiest dream interpretation ever, _Dawn thought to herself. "Okay. Uh, where do we start?"

"First, can you describe the woman?" Lydia asked expectantly.

_Oh shit. _The only things Dawn knew about Diana Dormer were her name, the fact that she was Faith Lehane's Watcher, and that she died horribly right in front of Faith and at the hand of a massively powerful, horribly ancient vampire. "Uh, well, she was sort of in shadows. I didn't see her face. She had a British accent... she sounded really educated, too. She used some fancy words." Dawn paused. "To, uh, well, she reminded me of you, Mr. Giles."

"Reminded you of me? How?"

"Well, she felt a little, I dunno, stuffy. Uptight, I mean. No, that's not what I mean. Formal? Yeah, that's it. She felt formal." Dawn shrugged. It was as good as she could make it. "Like she was a professor or something."

"Can you remember anything else?" Lydia was writing everything down.

"Just what she said, that if we didn't help she wouldn't be able to watch over the girl anymore, and that we were supposed to have faith. She kept repeating it. I was supposed to have faith." Dawn repeated this point. "I was supposed to have faith. I was supposed to keep faith with something. And if I kept faith, the girl would be safe." _Come on, someone, key to it._

"Wonder what that means." Willow was writing on a legal pad. Every once in a while she'd circle something. Dawn leaned over to see over her shoulder, and it looked like Willow had diagrammed everything she said.

Jesse and Xander joined Dawn in looking over Willow's shoulder. They all stared at the complex network of words and phrases that Willow was constructing. "Willow, that's, uh... wow. I knew you were smart, but sometimes you scare me a little." Xander patted Willow on the shoulder.

"Thanks. Its, uh... I like to solve logic puzzles." She looked up at Giles. "You know those magazines they sell in the grocery? I love those."

"Er, yes. I'm familiar with them." Giles looked sheepish. "I buy the ones with the crosswords."

"Oh hey!" Jesse was still reading over Willow's shoulder. "I think I got it. This girl's a slayer. Or maybe she's, whaddaya call 'em. She's going to be one someday."

"You think the girl in Dawn's dream is a potential Slayer?" Lydia came over to look at Willow's notepad. Dawn and Xander scooted aside to give them room. "Show me. How'd you come to that conclusion?"

Jesse pointed. "Okay, we've got the woman talking like Mr. Giles, like a professor. All stuffy. And the woman says she won't be able to watch over the girl if Dawn doesn't help her." Jesse grinned and nodded at everyone.

"Yes. And?" Lydia prompted.

"What? Come on! Its obvious, right?" Once again, he grinned and nodded at everyone, this time excluding Lydia.

"Apparently not." Giles said. "What are you seeing that we aren't."

"Oh come on, really?" Jesse looked authentically disappointed. "Gus, come on. Dawn! Who do you know who are stuffy and sound like professors and watch over teenage girls?"

_Thank you, Jesse. Remind me to give you a big kiss when this is over._ "The Watchers. The woman is a Watcher. That means the girl is a potential Slayer!"

Lydia was thoughtful. "I must say that is well-reasoned. What do you think, Mr. Giles?"

"Well, I believe that, correct or not, we can't take the chance that its wrong. As you say, it is well-reasoned." Giles put a finger to his chin. "About what the woman said, about keeping faith. Dawn, are you religious?"

Dawn shrugged. No more than anyone else. I mean, I believe in God. I mean, its sort of obvious, right? Because crosses work on vampires. Of course, so do the holy symbols of other religions, too. So yeah, I know there's something out there greater than us. I just don't know if I buy into any specific religion. You know?"

"Hmm... yes. I understand. I was wondering what you were supposed to stay faithful to if you weren't religious."

"What if she meant the other kind of faith?" Xander asked. "You know, like, uh, loyalty, or confidence in something. Like, 'I have faith in you' kind of faith, not 'I believe in God' kind of faith." Xander had never bought into the idea of God in the first place. He wasn't convinced there _wasn't_ a God, he'd just seen damned little evidence for it.

_Okay, time for a nudge._ "So it could be religion, it could be confidence. Could be a lot of things." Dawn shrugged and smiled. "For all we know, its the girl's name, right?" She laughed at her own comment but hoped someone would pick up on it.

"Right." Giles looked at his watch. "Its getting late and its already dark outside. Perhaps we can continue this tomorrow. We did sort of get sidetracked. Dawn, I trust you can see your friends home safely?"

"Wait, tomorrow?" Jesse protested. "You want us to come back to school on a Saturday?" Willow and Xander both rolled their eyes at him.

"Actually, Mr. McNally, the only one of you who needs to come back tomorrow is Dawn. Though I suppose asking you _not_ to come back tomorrow would be wishful thinking." Giles sighed.

"Completely wishful thinking." Willow said in response. "Oh, unless... Dawn, if you don't want us here..."

"No, I think if you're going to be involved you need to be involved in everything. I've read _Harry Potter_, and if there's one thing that story will teach it, its that keeping secrets from people who need to know them can get people killed."

"Oh, I saw that book at the store. Is it any good?" Willow asked. Her expression was wide open and enthusiastic, and Dawn reflected to herself that Willow had never been that open when she was older, about anything. She also reflected on how weird it was that, in the here-and-now, _Harry Potter _hadn't skyrocketed into 'worldwide phenomenon' territory yet.

"Definitely worth the read. Would make a great movie, for that matter." Dawn couldn't resist adding.

"And you're sure you want them participating?" Lydia asked. At Dawn's expression, she held up a hand. "I had to ask. I want you to be sure. Its not every day you abandon millennia of tradition."

"I'm sure. Totally sure." Dawn began collecting up her things. "You know, if I'm going to include them, and I don't think we can stop them, we should look into showing these guys how to fight."

"What? You want them to fight?" Lydia was shocked.

"No, of course not. I just want them to be able to defend themselves. You know, just in case? I'm thinking Aikido. And maybe some crossbow practice. Ooh! Spears!"

"Spears?" Jesse asked. "You want to teach us how to use spears?" As he asked this he brought his arms up and made a 'stab-stab-stab' motion with both hands.

"Sure. Make sure the pointy end is made of wood instead of metal and your spear turns into really long stake, right?"

"Yes, well, that does make a certain amount of sense." Giles began putting the books away. "You four be safe. Don't take chances. We'll see you tomorrow." She looked over at Lydia. "You coming?"

"Ah, not tonight. Everything I have packed with me is at the hotel, and I'm only packed for a three day jaunt. I'd like to visit tomorrow, and perhaps I'll stay overnight then." Lydia started to say something more, thought against it, then started again. "Dawn, I'm flying back to England on Sunday, as scheduled. Mr. Giles will be in charge of you until I get back."

"No problem. Good night, Lydia. I'll see you tomorrow." Dawn gave her Watcher a hug before leaving. Knowing how important to Buffy Giles would become, she didn't want to get between the two. She was going to try and become as close to Lydia as the older woman would allow.

When Lydia returned the hug, Dawn got a warm feeling inside that surprised her. _Maybe it will work out,_ she thought to herself. The hug had made her realize that she felt a bone-deep loneliness. It had been so persistent and all-encompassing that she hadn't noticed it. The simple act of hugging an older woman who just happened to be a potential mentor had made her feel a little bit better when she hadn't actually realized she was feeling bad in the first place.

"I want us to be friends." Dawn whispered during the hug. "Not just Slayer and Watcher, but Dawn and Lydia. Friends. I'll see you tomorrow." When she pulled back, Lydia was nodding.

She turned to the others, who were watching her expectantly. "Okay, guys. Your chariot awaits. Anyone else hungry?"

"I could eat." Jesse said as he followed Dawn out. "How about you, Will? You hungry? Xan?"

"Sure. Food sounds good." Willow put an arm around Dawn's shoulder. "What do you think about Chinese, guys?"

"I was actually thinking Mexican." Xander said, taking up a position to Dawn's right. Jesse was on the other end of the line, to Willow's left. "There's that new place out on Groveland, called 'Los Hermanos'. Don Beasley said they were amazing, and not that expensive. Beez said that I've got to try the enchiladas verdes."

"Whatever you guys want. I'm hungry enough to eat a horse." Dawn dug out her keys and unlocked the car doors.

"Guys, I'd love to, but I've got about two bucks to my name. Maybe later." Jesse said as he climbed into the back seat behind the driver. "You can just drop me off."

"Nonsense," Dawn said. "I'll cover you. Pay me back by coming over tomorrow after we're done with Lydia and Giles. Help me unpack. I'm still living out of boxes."

Willow took the shotgun seat as Xander climbed in behind her."Oh, sure! We'd love to help. With your unpacking, I mean."

"Absolutely. It'll give us a chance to poke around in your things and learn your every dream, aspiration, and nightmare!" Xander chuckled.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Fun times ahead. So, Mexican?" There were nods all around. She started the car, and drove out of the school's parking lot.

**XxxxxxX**

"I got to hand it to Beez, when he's right, he's right. Those were some excellent enchiladas." Once again, it was Dawn and Xander alone in the car. Willow was living up to her word. She kept her personal reactions to the obvious affection Dawn showed to Xander as quiet as possible and kept out of Dawn's way. Jesse, on the other hand, seemed to be actively encouraging the budding relationship. So when they left the restaurant, Jesse loudly announced that he had to be home first, but that since Willow's was on the way to his house, she could be dropped off first.

"That they were." Dawn stared up at the Harris house alongside Xander. It was obvious he was hesitant to get out of the car. "You going to be okay?" The concern was written on her face.

"Yeah. Nothing I'm not used to." He was obviously uncomfortable. "Look, Dawn..."

"No, its okay. You don't need to explain anything. You don't even have to talk about it if you don't want to. I just... it bothers me, because I think you're a good guy and you deserve better."

Xander shrugged. "It's not like I'm anything special. I -"

"Don't you ever say that! Not to me. Not ever!" Xander's eyes widened at Dawn's sudden anger. "You have no idea how special I think you are. I'm 'Chosen.' I have a destiny now, because I'm a Slayer. And my destiny is to fight and fight and fight, constantly in danger. I can't stop fighting, I can't just say, 'Sorry, I'm done' and walk away. I have to do this for the rest of my life and I have no idea how long that's going to be, Xander. But you, you actively chose to help me. I might seem heroic, but I'm just doing my job. You're the one going above and beyond. So don't you dare tell me you're not special."

He rubbed his face where she slapped him. "I'm -"

"I'm not done." Dawn ducked her head. "Let me finish, please. Just, let me finish." Xander nodded, and Dawn took a deep breath. "One of the two wisest, most compassionate men I ever met once told me that its hard, living near the spotlight but never actually having it shine on you. It's hard making the effort knowing that in the end you're not going to get the credit because you live in the shadow of people who are more capable than you are. But you see, that's what makes you special, Xander. That's what makes you extraordinary." She swallowed, trying not to cry. "When I asked if you wanted to help, did it ever occur to you, just once, to say no? Even for a little while?"

"No. Not after – I had to help. Its too big a job for one person, and I have to help." Xander was staring at his shoes, not sure of where this was going.

"And that's why you're special, Xander. Because you aren't shying away from it, and you're not going to let it make you give up. So don't you ever tell me you're not special. You, Willow, Jesse... you're all extraordinary." She leaned across to his seat and put her arms around him. For a long while, they sat, just like that, holding each other.

Finally they pulled away from each other. "I know you don't want to, but if you ever need to talk about your Mom and Dad, I'm always available. And if you need someplace to run to when things get really bad, I've got another spare room. Its yours as long as you want it." Dawn took a deep breath and let it out slow. "And I'm going to keep telling you how special you are until you believe it."

"I appreciate it, but I think even Tony and Jessica would notice if I just up and moved out on them."

"Okay. But keep it in mind." Abruptly, Dawn took his face in her hands and kissed him, first gently and then with more feeling and passion. Xander was surprised in the beginning, but swiftly caught on that they were kissing. That kissing was now something they would be doing in the future.

But eventually it had to stop. "I'd better get inside." Dawn nodded at him, not saying anything. He turned back to her before closing the car door and said, "I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"You want me to drop by and give you a ride in?" Dawn asked.

Xander thought about it for a minute. "Nah, too much chance that Tony or Jessica would be up and around."

"You sure? You don't have to be -"

"I'm... I don't want to see how they'd treat you." Xander said, again staring at his shoes.

"Okay. We've got time, you know. It's okay." Dawn smiled at him. "Night, Xander. Pleasant dreams."

He waved at her as he walked to the door. Dawn stayed at his curb until he was safely inside.

**XxxxxxX**

As her second morning in the house was also her first Saturday, Dawn felt much less hurried than she had the day before. She took her time with breakfast which on this day was four bowls of what she called her 'perfect cereal mix' of two parts Peanut Butter Crunch to one part regular Captain Crunch and one part Crunchberries. After her shower she contemplating continuing the trend she was following for dressing stylish yet simple but in the end went with a pair of blue-jean shorts and a dark blue t-shirt that read _People Hate It When Sentences Don't End Like They Potato!_ She finished the ensemble with a pair of knee-high Pippi Longstocking socks and some combat boots.

She was lacing the boots up with her favorite yellow shoe-laces when her phone rang. Dawn actually had to hunt around in her purse for it. "Hello?"

"_Dawn? Good morning. This is Michael Kuzak."_

"Hi, Mike. Guess it was your turn, huh?"

She heard the lawyer chuckle. _"Yeah, Leland and Arnie and I figure we'll take turns. So are you settling in?"_

"Hmm," Dawn thought about it. "Well, sort of. I mean, I started school. Met some people, some good some bad. Made a couple of friends. Met some cool teachers. Its been a couple of days. I managed to make a grocery trip, but I am still living out of boxes. I've got some new friends coming over later today to help me unpack."

"_That's good to hear, that you're making friends. _Kuzak chuckled again. _"As for it being a couple days, I understand. I've always thought that the good eventually made up for the bad."_

"One hopes." Finished with the laces, she put her boots on one-handed.

"_What?"_

"I said 'one hopes'. That it all balances out, I mean." She juggled the phone while tightening her shoe-laces.

"_Oh, hey, Dawnie... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up... Look, you know what? Just try to have some fun, okay?"_

"I will. I'm meeting my friends at the school gym. They keep it open on the weekends for the teams, and you can go and use the equipment as long as one of the coaches is there. We're going to shoot hoops, I think."

"_Then you go have fun. I'm glad you're making friends."_

Dawn sighed. "Me too." She was about to start ending the call when she remembered. "Oh, I might be taking in a boarder. She's a visiting professor and doesn't have any place to stay while she's here and I think I'm going to rent her a room. This place is too big for me by myself."

"_Do you think that's wise?"_

"Why not? I don't think she's a psycho-killer or anything. She's shorter than me and looks about as offensive as a piece of Wonder Bread."

"_Well, let me get her name. I want to check her out."_

"Mike."

"_No, Dawn. This is what we're here for."_

"All right. Fine." Dawn huffed. "Her name's Lydia Lamontagne..."

_How do you spell her last name?"_

"I don't know yet. But its "la-mon-tayne." It sounds French, so its probably spelled with a g-n-e at the end of it instead of spelling it like 'la mountain'. I've talked to her. She's quiet, bookish, and sweet. Please don't mess this up. I need a roommate and I like talking to her."

"_Okay, but if we check her out and find anything suspicious, I'm calling the cops."_

"Fine. Look, Mike, I've got to go."

"_Right. You have fun, Dawn. Bye."_

"Bye, Mike." Dawn folded up her phone and tucked it back into her purse. She had all the confidence in the world that no one at McKenzie, Brackman would find anything unusual about Lydia. Soon after, she was in her car, heading toward the High School.

She got side-tracked as she drove past 1630 Ravello. There was a moving van in front, and her mom's – Buffy's mom; not her's anymore. Buffy's mom. The maroon SUV was in the drive, and the front door was open. Dawn drove past, slowly, and as she did she saw her – _**Buffy's**_ mom come out of the front door along with a couple of the movers. Shortly thereafter, Buffy herself was moving from the house to the truck. She disappeared for a moment, then reappeared carrying a box. Dawn could remember this day. If things were the same, then her eleven-year-old self was up in her room, digging through the boxes for her stuffed animals and other toys.

She couldn't help it. Dawn pulled to the curb and got out of her car. She approached the house slowly and casually. There were butterflies in Dawn's stomach – no, they weren't butterflies, they were full-blown monkeys jumping around in her stomach, and it was made even worse by a faint buzz that creeped into the back of her head. It grew stronger as she approached the house. Dawn kept a smile on her face. As she approached, Buffy came back out to grab another box and Dawn immediately recognized her sister as the source of the buzz.

Buffy stopped in the middle of the sidewalk when she spotted Dawn approaching.

"Hi!" Dawn called. I was driving by and saw you moving in and figured I'd stop and say 'welcome to the neighborhood'! I'm a couple of doors down, at 1625." She extended a hand. But Buffy ignored it.

Instead, Buffy was staring at Dawn, intensely, as if studying her face. She looked towards the house, then back at Dawn, then back at the house, and then finally back at Dawn. Buffy's face was a mask of confusion, fear, and a tincture of anger. She said nothing for several seconds, before blurting out, _"DAWNIE!?"_

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in association with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television. _Grease_ is owned by Paramount Pictures. All I own is the idea and the words.

**Author's Note the Second:** Sorry about the dialog heavy chapter. I'm still trying to establish the background before I get to the action-filled meat of the story.


	4. Coming Home

**Coming Home**

**XxxxxxX**

_And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories__**  
**__And every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,__**  
**__Homeward bound..._

– _**Simon and Garfunkel**__, "Homeward Bound"_

**XxxxxxX**

Just barely over a century old, Thomas MacHollister was the last vampire the Master, Heinrich Nest, had personally turned before the Elder vampire had been trapped in the mouth of Hell by the workings of the sorcerer Richard Wilkins. His was a delicate position. Despite being a master vampire in his own right, Thomas nonetheless was the youngest, and weakest, of the masters of the Line of Aurelius. As a master, he could order the minions to do his bidding; as the weakest master, he too was at the bidding of the stronger masters. If thus often fell to him to handle the grunt work that could not be trusted to the minions alone.

There was one upshot. Being so young, he had fewer problems dealing with the modern world than did some of his fellow vampires. It was a fact of their undead existence that the older a vampire became, the less he was comfortable, or even competent, with change. Lawrence knew, for example, that one of the reasons why there were so few master vampires over six centuries in age (and a vampire did not get to be that old without being a master) was inflexibility. He even knew this was true of his own Master, though he was far from foolish enough to actually speak that opinion aloud.

So when the Master needed someone to do something that involved modern technology, like, for instance, doing an internet search for traces of the current Slayer, and contacting those beings who were in position to know details about the girl, the Master gave the job to Thomas.

"So I called John Douglas, who put me in touch with Russell Winters in LA..." Thomas began.

"Russell Winters? Why is that name familiar to me?" The Master interrupted. The elder vampire stared into space for a moment, before coming back to the conversation. "My apologies, Thomas. Go on, please."

"Right." Thomas waited a moment, just in case. When the Master didn't continue, he cleared his throat. "Anyway, John Douglas put me in touch with Russell Winters. Winters told me that the Slayer who was in LA the last couple of years - the one that killed Lothos and his second, Amelyn – she hasn't been seen there for a while. No one's been bragging about taking down a Slayer, though, so its possible the girl Darla ran into was her."

"Did Mr. Winters give you a description?"

"He did." Thomas flipped to the next page of the notebook he was reading from. "According to several of Winters minions who'd survived close contact with the Slayer, she was pale, short, blonde, and a bit of an airhead. You know, superficial. 'Bimbo' was the word that Winters used to describe her."

"That wasn't the Slayer I ran into, then." Darla shook her head. "The one that took down Jose and Rinaldo was at least as tall as Lawrence here." She put her hand on the shoulder of the nearest minion. "Long-limbed. Graceful. She moved like a ballerina. She had long, straight, brown hair. And there was nothing superficial about this one; she recognized me and called me out by name."

"Ah, well, there you have it." The Master interjected. "The Slayer in Los Angeles has met her end, as all Slayers do, and a new one has been Called. And this one, unlike the last one, is apparently one of the Council's children. That should make things easier for us."

"How so, Master?" Thomas asked.

"Thomas, you should keep up your reading. Otherwise, you might not make it to your third century." The Master's chiding was seemingly friendly, but Thomas knew better. "It is almost common knowledge that the dangerous Slayers are the wild cards, the ones who appear out of nowhere and who fight without constraint. The ones that are raised by that ridiculous Watcher's Council fight like wind-up dolls. No heart. No imagination."

"I'm sorry, Master, but I still don't understand."

"Oh, Thomas." The Master shook his head with a sigh. "The fact that this new Slayer knows so much about us is a clear sign that she was Council raised. She'll be methodical, procedural, and utterly unimaginative as she hunts us. Even you, Thomas, will be able to dispose of her if you keep your wits about her and out-think her rather than trying to out-power her."

The elder vampire stood from his throne and paced. His minions were silent, waiting for his command.

"I want you to bring this new Slayer to me. I haven't tasted the blood of a Slayer in centuries, and I find I have a craving for it." He stopped pacing to look over them. "And my children, I must stress this. Bring her to me alive and unspoiled. I don't care if you are on the verge of starvation when you capture her. Taste her blood before I get a chance to, and you'll regret it until the day I die."

The assembled vampires of the Line of Aurelius, both master and minion, nodded in obedience.

"It shall be as you command, Master." Luke, the largest of the vampires, stood, taking as always his assumed position as the Master's second in command. _But then, _Thomas thought to himself, _Luke had always been a brown-nosing asshole._

**XxxxxxX**

Buffy was staring at Dawn, intensely, as if studying her face. She looked towards the house, then back at Dawn, then back at the house, and then finally back at Dawn. Buffy's face was a mask of confusion, fear, and a tincture of anger. She said nothing for several seconds, before blurting out, _"DAWNIE!?"_

Dawn's first instinct was to deny it, but there was something in Buffy's eyes, some desperate need for an answer that Dawn, as Buffy's sister, could not say no to. "Hi, Buffy. Yeah, its me." At Dawn's words, Buffy's mouth had opened and closed, twice, but no sound had left Buffy's mouth. "Look, I know this is weird, but..."

She caught the change in Buffy's demeanor almost as quickly as it happened. Dawn could see the slight shift in Buffy's weight, the tiny bursts of motion in her shoulders and her legs, and somehow Dawn knew what was coming. Buffy's lips grew thin and her eyes narrowed, and it broadcast her intentions to anyone who knew what it meant. Dawn sidestepped the punch and pushed Buffy's arm out of line, causing the other girl to stumble. She stepped back, not wanting to seem aggressive, but Buffy followed. The senior Slayer was on the scent, like a hound after a fox, and wasn't going to let Dawn disengage that easily.

Dawn backed into the house's small front yard. A blocked punch, blocked punch, duck under a kick, roll backward to avoid a follow-up kick. "Buffy, stop! I'm not here to..." She ducked under a jab, knocked another punch aside, all the while backing away. Dawn sidestepped a kick and missed the followup backhand, but rolled to the side to minimize the force behind it. It put enough distance between the two girls for Dawn to drop into her own fighting stance. Dawn stepped back as Buffy's roundhouse kick swept through the area her head had previously occupied, then pushed aside her sister's follow-up punch with a high block that she turned into a capture maneuver.

Dawn grabbed Buffy's wrist and pulled. Not expecting it, Buffy stumbled forward, allowing Dawn to turn Buffy, dragging her arm back and upward in a classic arm-lock. Using her greater mass and height, she pushed Buffy forward and hooked one of her feet around Buffy's ankle and took her down to the ground as gently as she could. She wasn't there to hurt the other Slayer.

"Okay, stop. Just stop. I'm not here to fight you. Think about it, for God's sake. I'm a Slayer!" Dawn spoke directly into Buffy's ear. Buffy was struggling, and it was taking all of Dawn's effort to keep her on the ground. Buffy brought her other arm around, grabbed a handful of Dawn's hair, and yanked. Dawn bit her lip against the scream, trying to ignore the pain. "Damn it, Buffy! I'm Dawn! I'm Dawn! Stop, already!"

"You can't be Dawn!" Buffy 's response was frantic, and Dawn suddenly realized that part of it was fear that Dawn really was who she was claiming to be. "Dawn's just a kid! You can't be her. She's not... she's not... you!"

"I'm sorry, Buffy, but its true. You were right the first time. I'm Dawn. I'm your sister." Dawn sighed. She let Buffy go, scrambling backward out of Buffy's reach, but staying on the ground. "What can I do to convince you? Wait. Got it. When I was eight, I accidentally set fire to the back yard while trying to cook a hot dog over a campfire! Dad grounded me for a month! When I was ten I decided I was going to grow up and marry Taylor Hanson; I played their album so often you threatened to throw it into a wood chipper!" Buffy rolled over and pulled herself onto her knees. She was staring at Dawn as if the other girl were on fire. "Oh! When Mom and Dad sent you to that hospital, I tried to give you my elephant, Fred, because I didn't want you to be lonely!"

"You tried to give me Fred." Buffy's voice was weak, almost non-existent.

"Yeah, you know. Stuffed elephant. Wears overalls. Has big white plastic buttons on his suspenders, which is why the dork orderly wouldn't let you have him 'cause you might have choked. Missing one ear. His trunk bends..."

"... to the right. Because you got sick and puked all over him and Dad put him in the washing machine." Buffy's eyes grew misty, and Dawn felt her own eyes welling over. "Dawnie? What happened? How are you so... big? How are you a Slay-" Buffy slapped a hand over her own mouth, stifling the rest of the sentence. "Oh God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I never wanted..." Dawn watched as her sister's eyes went even wider, and was amazed that it was possible. "You're older, and you're a Slayer! You're from the future! Somehow you're from the future!"

"Yeah, I, uh, sort of." Dawn crawled to her feet and helped Buffy to hers as well. Dawn leaned down and brushed the grass and dirt off of her blue jeans. "I guess if this was a science fiction story, I'd be talking about timelines and alternates and getting all Emmett Brown right now." Dawn bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed. "Oh, fuck it." Dawn lunged forward and embraced her sister. "I missed you so much. You have no idea how much I've missed you."

Dawn could feel Buffy stiffen suddenly, then relax into the hug. "I guess -"

"What in Heaven's name is going on out here!" Dawn jerked at the voice. Both she and Buffy turned toward the house. Dawn stared at the woman on the porch. She couldn't believe it. She knew, intellectually, that this meeting would occur, but Dawn had deluded herself into thinking that emotionally, she was ready for it.

"Buffy, who is... what happened to your face? Why do you have dirt and grass all over... were you two fighting?"

"Mom?" Dawn's vision blurred as her eyes filled with tears. _"Mommy?"_ She brushed past Buffy at a run.

"Dawn! Wait!" Buffy tried to grab Dawn by the shoulder, but it was hopeless. She ducked under Buffy's arm, vaulted the short flight of steps, and engulfed her mommy in a hug. It didn't matter what D'Hoffryn had done. It didn't matter that, on paper, her mother had been some unknown woman named Anne MacElvoy, who'd married some equally unknown man named Lucas Summers. It didn't matter that, in this world, in the here-and-now, she wasn't really a part of this family.

This was Dawn's mom. Joyce Summers, whom Dawn had last seen in a morgue.

"Dawn..." Buffy's voice was close. "Dawn, you can't just... Oh God, how do we... Mom, you have to understand..."

Dawn released Joyce from the hug and took a half-step back, her arms still holding the other woman. Joyce's face was a moving current of surprise, confusion, sadness, anger, back to surprise and confusion. Dawn wiped the tears from her face. "You're alive and you're here! I missed you, Mommy. I missed you..." Her words dissolved into uncontrollable sobs and all of the stress and the tension and the agony and the misery of being the lone survivor of her entire world fell on Dawn all at once.

She felt Joyce pull her in, gently pushing Dawn's head down to her shoulder. Joyce's other hand rubbed small circles on her back, a gesture that Dawn could remember from every single time her mom had comforted her.

"Buffy?" Joyce asked. "Who... you called her Dawn? What is going on?" Dawn hunched in, closer to her mother, not wanting to give any space to the chance that Joyce might reject her.

There was silence, and then Buffy said, "That's Dawn, mom. That's our Dawn. I don't know how, but she's... I think she's from the future."

"The future? That's... what are you talking about, Buffy? That's not possible. She can't be..." For all her protests, Joyce continued to comfort the sobbing girl. "Sweetie... um... Dawn? Honey? Look at me."

Dawn raised her head, taking a moment to wipe her nose on her sleeve. "Yeah, Mom?"

Joyce stared at her, taking in every square inch of Dawn's face. "Oh my God." She caressed Dawn's hair, then cupped her face. Dawn leaned into the touch. "You – you are Dawn. Oh my God. You're Dawn, all grown up."

Dawn just nodded. "Yeah."

Joyce looked into the house. "But... but Dawn's..."

Dawn nodded again. "I know." She looked down at her toes. "I'm, uh..."

"How is this poss – wait." Joyce held up a hand. "Let's – let's go inside. Okay, honey?" Joyce nodded to Buffy. "Okay? Let's go inside."

Not waiting for an answer, she carefully walked Dawn inside. The living room was filled with boxes, but at least the furniture was in place already. "Here, sit down." Joyce looked over at Buffy, who was hovering near the door. "Buffy, why don't you bring me a glass of water for... for Dawn."

"No, I'm okay. I'm fine." Buffy stopped in mid-stride at Dawn's words. "Please, just... it's okay. We should talk about this."

"Right. Talk. Okay." Joyce said.

The three women stared at each other, none knowing where to start. Dawn was looking at anything but Buffy and Joyce, Joyce was staring at Dawn while trying not to see like she was staring at Dawn, and Buffy was studying her hands. The silence dragged on. Dawn became aware of the ticking of a clock in the kitchen, and the sounds of movement coming from upstairs. Her younger self was upstairs, moving things around, and humming. It took her a moment to recognize the tune as "MMMBop" by Hanson. She could hear it over the click of Buffy's heels as she paced back and forth in front of the kitchen door.

The silence continued.

"Oh, hey!" Buffy blurted out. She stopped pacing, seeming incapable of handling the awkward silence any more. "Mom, uh, she, Dawn I mean, she was telling me she's from, um... what did you say? An alternate something? It was very _Twilight Zone _meets _Back to the _Future."

"You came back from the future?" Joyce shook her head. "Like time travel? But that's ridiculous! It's impossible!"

"Buffy, I have to tell her." Dawn was staring at her shoes. _"We_ have to tell her. Everything."

"What? You want to tell... _No!_" Buffy was shaking her head, obviously furious.

"We have to, Buffy. We have to." Dawn waved off Buffy's objection. "She'll be safer if she knows what's going on."

"Dawn..."

"Tell me what?" Joyce asked. "Tell me what?"

"Nothing, Mom. It's nothing. We _don't_ need to talk about this, Dawn." Buffy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall in a pose Dawn recognized as 'General Buffy Has Spoken'.

"Jesus, you are so dense sometimes." Dawn fumed. "Buffy, do believe I'm who I am? Have I proven it to you?"

Buffy nodded.

"Do you believe me when I say I'm from the future?"

Buffy nodded again.

"So if I'm from the future, I know what's going to happen, right?"

Buffy shrugged. "I guess." From Buffy's sullen expression, it was clear that she had already reached the point Dawn was trying to make, but didn't want to admit it.

"So trust me on this, okay? Mom, you, me, and even, um, me... the other me." Dawn rolled her eyes and pointed to the ceiling. "You know who I mean. Her. Keeping _this _secret a secret almost got Mom and me killed a couple of times. Because you weren't telling her what was going on, and all she saw was you all bruised up, washing blood out of your clothes. In the end, you had to, um..." Dawn blushed and made the universal gesture that meant either 'staking a vampire' or 'giving a handjob'. "... you know. Right in front of her. Because she was being attacked. So I don't know about you, but I'm going to tell her what she needs to know to stay safe."

"What are you two talking about?" Joyce asked. She repeated the gesture Dawn just made. "What do you mean by... OH MY GOD! What are you two going to tell me?"

"No, Mom. It's not that! It's... poop. It's almost worse than that. Mom, you see. Um. Okay, this is going to be difficult." Dawn was quiet for a moment. "Hey, Buffy? I think we need a prop. How about a frying pan? Can you go find a frying pan or something?"

"You're bound and determined to do this, aren't you?" Buffy couldn't meet Dawn's eyes.

"Yeah. It really is for the best. I promise."

"Okay. Fine. Whatever. Hold on a second." Buffy stepped through the kitchen door. Joyce and Dawn sat quietly.

Joyce seemed to want to say something, then stopped. "Yes?" Dawn asked.

"Oh. It was nothing."

Silence descended again. They could hear Buffy rummaging around in the kitchen.

"So, uh, Mom. What do you think of the new place?" Dawn couldn't take the continued awkward silence.

"Oh! Its very nice. And I love the neighborhood." Joyce smiled. "So, uh, when did you. Um. How should I...? When did you arrive?"

"Two days ago." At Joyce's look, she nodded. "Yep. Two days ago. Arrived just at sunrise. Spent the day figuring out what was what. Met some people."

"But where have you been staying?"

"I have a house, just down the block. I'm not quite moved in, yet. I mean, I dug some clothes out of the boxes, and some sheets." Dawn's expression lightened. "Oh! And I went grocery shopping, so I have food."

"Um, that's good. Food is good." Joyce looked around at her own house. "I think we're ordering pizza tonight."

"Probably a good idea." Dawn nodded again.

"So how did you get a house? And a car. I saw a car. I presume its yours?"

"Um... the Mercedes? Yeah, its mine. When I came here, things had been set up for me to survive, so I've got papers, and money and a bank account." Dawn didn't want to get into the next part, but she felt she had to. "I, um... I even have a birth certificate." Before Joyce could say anything, Dawn added, "You're not on it. According to the birth certificate, my folks are Lucas and Anne Summers. They, uh, they died in a plane crash recently."

"Wait, so you're all by yourself?" At Dawn's nod, Joyce frowned. "You weren't placed with relatives?"

"No, I was declared emancipated. All my legal stuff and money issues are handled by a law firm in LA." Dawn shrugged. "It's okay. I mean, the original plan didn't involve getting, um, involved I guess. With you guys, because I also have a car and a bank account with a lot of money in it."

"What are you two talkin' about?" Joyce turned to look at Buffy as she came back into the room, holding a stainless steel gallon-capacity saucepan. It was the last survivor a set of pots that someone, maybe Hank's mother, had given them for a wedding gift. Joyce had been thinking about replacing it for years.

"Where I was living. I've got a house just down the block." Dawn took the pan from Buffy. As if reading Joyce's thoughts, she said, "Don't worry. I'll replace it, I promise."

"What, you mean you're not going to live here with us now?" Buffy sounded honestly surprised.

"Oh, hey, its a great thought, and I'm grateful you'd want me, but I think it would be for the best if nobody knows I'm, you know, your little sister but five years older and from the future. Her next thought came naturally, and she clamped down on it with a will. _Especially because I'm actually seven years older and from the future._

"Okay. So you were going to tell me something." Joyce looked at the pan curiously. Dawn was just holding it.

"Right. Um, Mom, do you remember back when Hemery High's gym burned down, and everyone was blaming Buffy? Buffy had run off to Vegas with her boyfriend, and while she was gone, I got into her diary and told you all about her saying that she was fighting monsters and vampires?" Dawn began. "Well, she really was fighting monsters and vampires. That's why she burned down the gym."

Buffy was agog. "Wait! You read my diary? I can't believe you read my diary."

"Look, it was a long time ago, okay? Years, even." Dawn shrugged. "I was only ten! What did I know?"

"For you it was years! For me it was eight months, Dawn!" Buffy grumbled. "I can't believe you read my diary."

"Girls, calm down." Joyce laid a hand on Dawn's arm and turned to Buffy. "Both of you calm down." She centered back on Dawn and her eyes got wide. "Wait. Are you implying that vampires are... No, that's just... That everything with the monsters was real? You're telling me I had my own daughter committed for nothing?"

"Mom, its okay. I survived it okay. And I don't hate you or anything." Buffy shrugged. "It was actually a little bit restful at times."

"But yeah, its all real. And Buffy is a Slayer." Dawn said. "And so am I, now."

Joyce put a hand to her forehead. "Monsters are real. Monsters are real. Okay. Monsters are real." She shook her head, as if not wanting to accept what she was hearing. "And what's a Slayer?"

Buffy sighed and took up the narrative. "There's this spiel. 'In every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will... anyway, I forget the rest."

"Slayers are like superheroes. They've got increased strength, stamina, reaction time. They heal real fast, have really sharp senses. Its sort of a package thing." Dawn added.

"Okay, and you're both one of these Slayers?" Buffy and Dawn nodded simultaneously.

"You said you could prove it. That you could offer me evidence that you were telling the truth." It was clear that Joyce wanted anything but.

Dawn gave a slight smile and held up the sauce pan. "Nothing up my sleeve but my elbow." Never losing the slight smile, Dawn casually bent the sides of the saucepan until the pot was caved in on itself. Shortly, it resembled a frying pan more than it did something to cook soup in. Dawn tossed it to Buffy, who caught it out of the air. Buffy studied the pan, looked back at Dawn, and proceeded to bend the pan in successive rolls until it resembled an empty, stainless steel toothpaste tube with a handle. She tossed it back to Dawn, who handed it to Joyce. "Careful, its a little warm where the bends are."

Joyce stared at the piece of pop art that used to be a sauce pan.

Dawn decided it was time. "A little over three days ago, from my perspective, but years in the future from yours, Buffy lead a team of fighters against the worst threat she'd ever faced." Dawn could see Buffy flinch a little at being talked about in the past tense regarding events that hadn't happened. "It was like nothing she'd fought before, and she'd fought everything at that point. Witches, sorcerers, vampires, evil robots..." That caused Joyce to chuckle, and Dawn almost winced herself at the irony. "But this was nothing like anything that had come before."

"I lost, didn't I?" Buffy's mouth was pulled thin.

"Yeah. There were maybe twenty or thirty of us who went into the fight, and..."

"Wait, us? This was before you were a Slayer, right?" Buffy asked. "And you were still fighting?"

"We couldn't spare anyone. Everybody had a job to do. I did mine." Dawn stared into space, obviously reliving the horror of what happened. "You lost. And only three of us made it out of Sunnydale. We made it to Los Angeles and tried to find shelter, but it was too late. The evil was already out, and pretty quickly the world was crawling in demon super-vampires. Two of my friends – your friends, too, Buffy – sacrificed themselves to, uh, cast a spell that would let them send me back so I could fix things."

"Can you?" Joyce asked. Her face was a mix of shock and concern. "Fix things, I mean?"

"I think I can. At least some things." Her gaze lingered on Joyce perhaps a little to long. Dawn gave a watery chuckle, thinking of how she spotted Warren Mears at the high school. "There's a handful of things I think I can stop entirely. There are other things I think I won't be able to stop, but think I can change, hopefully for the better. And there are some things I still don't know what to do about."

"And you're going to tell us about them?" Joyce asked.

"Some of them, yeah. Not all of them."

Before Joyce could react to that statement, she was interrupted. "Who's she?" A small, lilting, child-voice intruded into the conversation. Dawn turned in her seat and gasped. There, at the bottom of the stairs, was herself. Her eleven year old self.

The younger version of Dawn approached Buffy, never taking her eyes off of the older Dawn. "Buffy, is she a friend of yours? Why is she looking at me like that?" The smaller Dawn looked down at herself, then behind her. "Do I have something on me?"

"Dawn..." Buffy started. She closed her mouth abruptly.

"What?" Younger Dawn approached the older, obviously curious. Older Dawn had still done nothing but stare at the smaller girl. As the two became closer to one another, Joyce suddenly let out a gasp of her own. Buffy merely stared. But everyone, even the younger version of Dawn, was thinking the same thing. The smaller girl brought a hand up and traced the lines of the older Dawn's face with a finger. She ran it across Older Dawn's brow, her nose, her cheekbones, and then her jaw before finally, gently, poking the older girl right in the middle of her forehead.

"I know who you are. I had a dream about you, the other night." Younger Dawn whispered. "You were there, and this green light was all around you. It came out of you and flew into me and then I glowed all green."

"You know who she is, Dawn?" Joyce asked.

"Sure. She's me, but older. I think she came from the future."

"A possible future." Older Dawn corrected.

"Dawn..." Buffy began, slowly. "You're doing a fine job at not freaking out right now. How's that work?"

Smaller Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it is a pretty weird thing, and there probably should be at least some freakage, you know? But I just don't feel it."

"Well I feel it. I'm feeling a lot of it. I need a drink." Joyce stood up, looking at the three girls. "I just... I need to..." Without saying anything else, she bolted for the kitchen.

**XxxxxxX**

Lydia Lamontagne stifled a yawn as she entered the Sunnydale High School library. She still wasn't used to the time difference, and her body kept trying to tell her that it was four in the afternoon instead of eight in the morning. She couldn't quite stifle the second yawn as she glanced around the book-filled room.

She placed her two suitcases, all she had in the world at the moment, behind the counter and looked around. At first she thought no one was there, but then she noticed that the door to the library's office was open.

She knocked lightly on the office door before entering. "Mr. Giles? Good morning."

It was clear from the look of him that Rupert Giles had been there all night. He was wearing the same clothing as the day before, and had the manner who had slept hunched over on his desk. "Are you all right, Mr. Giles?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, splendid." He took his glasses off and wiped his eyes. "Right, sorry. I was up very late speaking to the Council. I suppose afterward I just drifted off where I was."

"And what does the Council have to say for itself?" She'd had her own phone call with her superiors on the Council the night before, but unlike Giles had the benefit of a bed to fall asleep in.

"Well, er, they confirmed you as Dawn Summers's Watcher and asked me to assist you as much as I can until my own Slayer presents herself. Which they estimate will happen either Monday or Tuesday." The older man glanced at her, then started clearing his desk. "They also asked that I act as a reference for you here at the school, should you need one, and assuming you decide to become a teacher as your cover identity."

"Ah, well thank you, Mr. Giles. I appreciate it. I hadn't decided yet what I was going to do." Lydia paused for a moment before continuing. "I, too, spoke to the Council last night. I received some in depth results of the background check on run on my Slayer."

"And what did they find?"

"They found that Dawn Marie Summers was born to Lucas and Anne Summers in 1981 in Beverly Hills, California, one of the suburb communities of Los Angeles. Lucas Andrew Summers was a senior associate at McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak, a firm of solicitors in Los Angeles. Anne Orlando Summers, formerly Anne Orlando MacElvoy was a Junior Vice President of Acquisitions for Twentieth Century Fox, the movie studio." Lydia sat in the office's other swivel chair. "Both Lucas and Anne were extremely successful at their jobs, and their death last year in an airplane crash left Dawn Summers with a trust fund designed to allow her to live comfortably at least until she reaches 21 years of age."

"Which, given that she's a Slayer, is highly unlikely." Giles noted.

"Yes. Well. While I'm not sure how, she's apparently aware of the..." Lydia stopped. "I, uh, I may have betrayed my oath as a Watcher last night, Mister Giles."

Giles stared at her before asking, "How so?"

"I failed to inform the Council that Miss Summers is aware of the Cruciamentum. Or that she has forewarned both of us that neither she nor Miss Summ – your Miss Summers, that is." She stopped. "Lord, this is going to get confusing. That neither of the Slayers will take part in the ritual."

"Ah. That. Yes, well, if that is a betrayal of your oath then we're both oath-breakers. I didn't mention it either. I was honest when I said I find it barbaric."

"Yes, well. I have to admit I never thought about it until Dawn stated her objection. I suppose it seemed... necessary." Lydia wiped her hands on her jacket.

"So with her parents gone, under whose supervision is she?" Giles asked.

"Ah, therein lies the problem. She's not under anyone's supervision." At Giles look, Lydia continued. "Dawn Summers is a legally emancipated ward of the State of California. Her affairs are overseen by her father's former employers, and they seem to be doing a fine job of it. This put the kosh to the Council's initial idea, which was to use our connections to force an adoption through the system."

"Yes, that would make it sticky. I suppose for such an adoption to occur, she'd have to enter it voluntarily. I don't suppose..." Giles looked the question at Lydia.

"Mr. Giles, please." The female Watcher shook her head at the very idea. "I'm not half old enough to become the mother of a teenaged Slayer, even if it were possible. I'm only 27, after all. But given her emancipation and the fact that she's not only financially stable but actively thriving, I'm going to assume that the idea won't even enter the girl's head."

"Pity. There are some aspects of Watching a Slayer that are infinitely easier if you're also their parent." He sighed, and then added under his breath, "Not to mention infinitely harder."

"I wouldn't be able to bear it, Mr. Giles. Not if she were actually my child. Its going to be hard as it is." Lydia hesitated. She was afraid to bring her next concern up, but there was no help for it. "And now that the subject of parental feelings have been brought up, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about. I think – as her Watcher, I mean – that I should encourage Dawn to seek out counseling. Psychological counseling."

"Psychological – you mean therapy? For what?"

"I watched her pretty closely yesterday morning and last night, Mr. Giles, and I am fairly certain that she is suffering from some degree of post-traumatic stress." Lydia opened her notebook to the correct page. "I wrote everything down once I was back at my hotel room. She avoided the subject of her parents and their death. She had a tight lid on her emotional reactions except in two areas, young Mr. Harris and her anger at how, in her opinion, Slayers have been treated by the Council over the years. She was far too interested in the other Miss Summers welfare than is normal for someone you haven't ever met at all, not to mention the rest of Miss Summers' family. She was hyper-vigilant, and expressed an opinion that her future was under a limit imposed by outside influences. She openly admitted yesterday that she can't be considered normal, and I am guessing that she's been having trouble sleeping. We've both been trained to see the symptoms."

He wouldn't meet her eyes, but he nodded. Giles continued to straighten the mess on his desk. He sat there, motionless, before saying, "I thought about Miss Summers and her prescient dreams."

"Oh? And what was your conclusion?"

"As I am sure you're already aware, Slayers differ from one another, sometimes drastically. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, comparatively. While all Slayers possess the same raft of powers, the manner in which those powers manifest can be wildly distinct."

"And you think prescient dreams will prove to be Dawn's strength?" Lydia sat up. She hadn't realized she'd been slouching, but the conversation had become interesting, and she wanted to pay attention.

"One of them, yes. And perhaps a weakness. I'm sure that, if you're correct about Dawn suffering traumatic stress, they are contributing to the problem." Giles snapped a paper clip onto the last page of the stack. "Would you mind assisting me with the book returns?"

"Oh, certainly." Lydia followed him out to the return bin. "Do we have any idea when the children will be arriving this morning?"

"No, unfortunately not." Giles gave a thin smile. "I don't think either of us thought our instructions through very well. We'll have to remember to be more specific in the future."

"Quite. So, what's the procedure for the books?"

Giles placed two ink pads and the date stamps on the counter. "Its actually rather simple, you just – " The two Watchers looked up as the doors to the library opened. "Ah. Ms. Rosenberg. Mr. McNally. Good morning." He glanced at the doors. "I take it you haven't seen Mr. Harris or Ms. Summers this morning?"

"Nope." Jesse took a seat at the table. He collapsed into it in a particularly boneless fashion that reminded Lydia Lamontagne of some of the boys she had dates before university. The boys her father had outright hated.

"I'm sure they'll be along any minute." Willow held up a long rectangular cardboard box. "We brought donuts!"

**XxxxxxX**

The three girls trailed into the kitchen. Joyce was sitting at the table, an empty glass in front of her. It was, Dawn noted, just as filled with boxes as the rest of the house.

"You going to be okay, Mom?" Buffy asked. She eyed the empty glass as she sat across the table from Joyce. Younger Dawn pulled a chair over next to her mother and gave Joyce a quick hug. Older Dawn took up a chair to her mother's right.

Joyce stared at the glass. "I couldn't find the, uh..." She glanced at Younger Dawn, then back to the glass. "There wasn't anything to drink, so I've just been thinking."

"You probably have a lot of questions." Older Dawn crossed her arms in front of her on the table and laid her head on them, still looking at Joyce.

That caused Joyce to laugh, but it was a grim laugh. "You could say that. For a start, let's talk about this Slayer thing. How long have you been..."

Buffy clenched and unclenched her fist. She was staring at the movement of her fingers as she spoke. "About a year and a half ago, is my guess. I'm not sure exactly when. Just, about a year and a half ago. Right before things went bad at Hemery."

"Wait, did this have anything to do with... no, of course it did. This is why you started having trouble." Joyce put her head in her hands. "I've been so blind." She turned to Dawn. "And you? How long have you been a Slayer?"

Dawn thought about it. She didn't know whether her activation as a Slayer was a result of Willow's spell or D'Hoffryn's wish-granting. She knew which was easier to explain, however. "About a week before I came back to the past."

Joyce sighed again. "So how does it work? How do you become a Slayer? I mean, do you have to volunteer or something?"

"There's this whole destiny thing." Dawn began. "A long time ago, these wizards set things up so that the Slayer would have power to fight the bad guys. We told you that part. Well, from those days, long ago, to today, there have been certain girls around the world who have the potential to become the next Slayer. Generally they're teenagers, between thirteen and fifteen, but they can be a little older or a little younger, too."

"Really? I hadn't heard that part." Buffy said.

"Well, uh, a friend of mine once told me that she figured it was based on puberty. You know, when the girl started her monthlies. If they started earlier, they can be called earlier. If they started later, they'd be called later." Older Dawn smiled at Buffy's nod. "But no one knows for sure."

"But what, um, what starts it? What turns it on?" Joyce was looking from one girl to the other. Younger Dawn was just sitting and watching the byplay.

"When one girl dies, the next one is called." Buffy said in a flat tone.

"What?" Joyce turned to Older Dawn. "What does she mean?"

Older Dawn sighed. "What she means is that usually there's no retirement plan for Slayers. They fight until they die, and when they die the next girl in line inherits the power."

Buffy was staring at Dawn with tears in her eyes. "You've been a Slayer for about a week."

"Yeah."

Older Dawn could see it in Joyce's face when it clicked. "Wait... Buffy's been a Slayer for... and you're from the future, so you came after..."

"Yeah." Older Dawn said. She covered her eyes with her hands. "Yeah."

Surprisingly, it was Younger Dawn who broke the ensuing silence. "But you're here now, right? You're going to change things."

Older Dawn nodded. "I'm going to try."

So –" Buffy coughed, trying to clear her throat. "How, uh. Crap. How..." She stopped talking and stared at the floor.

Dawn pressed her palms into her eyes again. She understood that it was now time for questions and answers. "Are you asking 'how did you die' or are you asking 'how much longer do you have to live'?"

Buffy shrugged, but there was no enthusiasm in it. "Both, I guess."

"It's sort of complicated." Dawn met Buffy's gaze, and tried to project all the sympathy she could through it. Even knowing someone was going to try and avert it, hearing how you were going to die couldn't be pleasant. "Next June, almost at the end of the school year. You drown. You're knocked unconscious and dropped into a pool of water, and you drown. But, uh, its not – what I mean is that it – someone revives you with mouth-to-mouth and CPR. It was enough to trigger the Calling."

"Wait, a year from now? She's going to die a year from now?" Joyce shook her head. "But, you said that you've only been the Slayer for a week, and you look like you're, what, five years older than Dawn, I mean, the other Dawn... her." She waved toward her youngest daughter, who smiled back, enjoying the confusion.

"Oh, I get it." Younger Dawn sat up. "There were other Slayers between you and Buffy."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, two of them. Buffy drowned and Kendra was called. Kendra was killed by a vampire, and Faith was called."

"What happened to Faith?" Buffy seemed horrified, but she asked anyway.

"I don't know. She – and you; you were still around helping out – you two went into this cavern to fight a bunch of monsters with, uh, some people who were helping. And the cavern collapsed. The entire town collapsed. When I came back here, Sunnydale was a sunken crater.

Everyone was quiet again.

"Dawn, you have to tell us, tell me, what's going to happen if we're going to stop it all."

"I know, Buffy. I just... I don't remember it all. You know how I talked about keeping things secret? I didn't become aware of what was going on for a long time, because even after Mom did find out, the two of you kept me from it. So there's holes in my future knowledge, okay?"

"Okay." Buffy straightened and stretched. "But I do want to know..."

"I know, Buffy, and I'll tell you. But its going to be a long conversation. And there are some things I'm not going to tell you, because its better if you never know about them, ever."

"Dawn, we just had this argument about secrets killing, and now you're telling me..."

Joyce coughed, getting their attention. "Not to change the subject, but earlier you said that you have a new birth certificate?" Dawn nodded. Joyce thought for a moment. "Your mom and dad are Lucas and Anne Summers... right. Lucas would be Hank's Uncle George's son. I only met them once. Hank's cousin Lucas and his wife Anne. You're their little girl, Dawn." Joyce was reciting it, as if memorizing it. "That would make you Buffy and my Dawn's first cousin, once removed.

"Mom? What are you doing?" Buffy asked. "Dad doesn't have any cousins named Lucas and Anne, or an Uncle Dave! Grampa Dave was an only child!"

"Well you better start convincing yourself that he did, young lady, if Dawn's going to be a part of our lives. She's already legally established so its not like I can just adopt her."

"Yeah, Buffy." Dawn scowled. "I'm sorry, but its for the best if we maintained the entire 'separate person' thing. At least for now."

"All right, but I don't like it." Buffy sighed. "I guess we should go back to unloading the truck. We're running out of time."

That caught Dawn's attention. She looked to where she knew the clock would be, only to see an empty space. The actual clock was sitting on the counter, under where it would soon be hanging. She approached it, and then blanched. "Damn. I'm running late. Way late. I told someone I'd meet them and I forgot all about it." She glanced around herself. "Where did I put my purse?"

"Uh, you didn't have one." Buffy said. "At least not when you came up and started talking.

"Great. Left my phone in the car." Older Dawn sighed. "Look... this is going to sound weird, but we have to keep the fact that I'm Dawn from the future a secret." Both Joyce and Buffy opened their mouths, but stayed quiet at Older Dawn's upraised hand. "There's good reason, and I'll tell it to you later. But right now I have to go."

She caught Joyce in an all-encompassing hug. "I missed you, Mom. I'll be back, I promise. Buffy, you have no idea how much it means that you're here." She turned to her younger self. "And you, I want you to behave and listen to your sister. I know things, remember?" She gathered herself. "I'll come back this afternoon as soon as I can to help unpack. Then hey, maybe you can come over to my place and help me." And with that, she was out the door, and out of the house.

"Well, that was weird. But at least I'm going to be pretty when I get older." Younger Dawn said, still staring after the older version of her. That caused both Buffy and Joyce to snort. "There is one thing, though..."

"What's that, pumpkin?" Joyce stood and picked up her glass. On her way to the cupboard, she gave Dawn a small kiss on the top of her head.

"I, well, the older me. Dawn Senior, I guess. She kept saying how much she'd missed you, Mom. But she's only been back here a couple of days. I think something happened to you." Younger Dawn stared at her mother. "We have to figure out what so we can prevent it.

**XxxxxxX**

"That was Miss Summers." Giles said as he exited the office. "She apologizes for being late. Apparently she got hung up."

"Ah. Well. I do hope she's all right." Lydia looked up from where she'd been talking to Willow.

"She says she's fine. Just got distracted. Apparently she's not completely moved in yet and, er, had some difficulties." Giles rubbed at his glasses. Re-seating them, he continued. "Understandable, I suppose. She's only been in town a couple of days, and hasn't had the chance to properly set her house up yet."

"Hey! Great idea!" Willow chimed in. She nudged Jesse, who had arrived shortly after she had. Unlike the studious redhead, however, Jesse had quickly become bored out of his mind and had fallen asleep. "Jesse. What do you say? Housewarming party for Dawn. We can help her get unpacked. Take part of the load off."

"Mmmwhahuh?" Jesse bolted upright in his seat. "I'm awake. What did I miss?"

"I was saying, we can go help Dawn unpack her house. Dr. Giles said that she's still living out of boxes."

Jesse rubbed at his eyes. "Oh, sure. Yeah. Sounds like a plan." He looked around. "Xander here yet?"

"No, not yet." Willow looked hopeful as she turned to Giles. "Dr. Giles, did Dawn mention anything about seeing Xander?"

"Hurm. No, she didn't. Truthfully I didn't think to ask."

Willow turned to Jesse. "Think we should call?"

Jesse thought about Willow's question before shaking his head. The two shared a dark look. "Not on your life. We'd only make it worse."

"Yeah. I guess you're right." Willow slumped in her seat. "I just hope its not too bad."

Lydia had taken note of the conversation. She tapped Willow on the hand and asked, "You hope what is not too bad?"

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn was still several blocks from the school when she spotted a familiar figure poking along on the sidewalk. Xander was trudging along, staring at the sidewalk. He was wearing a heavy sweatshirt instead of his usual Hawaiian and t-shirt combo and didn't seem to be paying attention to his surroundings. It worried her.

Dawn pulled her car over and rolled down the front passenger-side window. "Hey there, Handsome Stranger. Can a lady show give you a lift?"

Xander leaned into the open window, and in what might have been the worst John Wayne voice ever, replied, "Well, good morning to you, Missy. I'd be much obliged if you could take me as far as Dodge City."

Dawn giggled and hit the unlock button. "Climb on in." Xander settled into the passenger seat, and once he was belted in, she kissed him. "I'm glad to see you."

"Ah, I see how you are now. Wait for me to be trapped inside the vehicle so you can work your womanly wiles on me." Xander waggled his eyebrows, which caused her to giggle again.

"You're a goofball." She lightly slapped him on the shoulder, still grinning, but the grin died when he winced. "Oh, Xander, I'm sorry. I'm... I'm not totally used to the whole super-strong thing. Did I... I was just playing. I didn't mean to hurt you."

He rotated his shoulder. "No, its not you. I, uh... I banged into something this morning. I'll be okay." But Xander wouldn't meet her eyes.

"You banged your _shoulder_ into something? That's like... Xander? What's up with your neck?" Dawn pulled the collar of his sweatshirt away, revealing a green, yellow, and purple mark that disappeared down his back under the cloth.

"Don't! No!" Xander flinched and grabbed Dawn's hand. She realized that the pressure he put on it would have hurt her had she been a normal girl, and she allowed him to pull her hand away. But she couldn't hide the shock on her face. He saw it, and immediately took a great interest in the car's carpeting.

"Xander." He tried to withdraw his hand from hers, but Dawn held on as tightly as she could without hurting him. Back in the there-and-then, Xander had told her about his childhood, and how few happy memories of his parents he had. "Banged it on something?"

Xander nodded. He still wouldn't look at her.

"Something, or someone?"

"I told you." Xander shrugged, but winced as he did so. "I -"

"Ran into a door? Fell down some stairs? Tripped and hit yourself on a counter? What?" Dawn fought to control the aggravation in her voice. He didn't need aggravation. He didn't need pity, either. Just understanding. Dawn put the car into park and turned off the key. "Okay, I get it. I get it. You're uncomfortable and ashamed and you don't want to talk about it. But – Xander, I sort of am into you. I like you. I think we could, you know... which means I'm interested, and I can't drop this. No matter how many times you tell me to." He gave her a quick glance and then went back to studying the car's floor. "I'm not trying to pry. I just... I care, okay?"

He shrugged, and winced again.

"Was it your dad?" Dawn asked.

"My dad's never laid a finger on me."

"Is your mom the hitter then?" Dawn's eyes widened at the fervor of Xander's words, but forced herself to keep her own voice calm. When Xander didn't say anything, she put a hand on his back, just where his neck met, and caressed him, gently. "It's okay. You don't have to talk to me. We'll just go to the school, okay? Just... I want you to know that I think you're amazing. I really like you. And I care. Just, I care, okay? So we'll just go."

She turned to restart the car when he sighed. He still wouldn't look at her, but at least he wasn't trying to avoid her touch, or trying to escape the car. He looked up at her, for just a second, then went back to staring at the floorboard. The quick view of his his eyes revealed they were filled with shame and misery. "I, uh, I wasn't fast enough, taking the trash out." He shrugged, trying to minimize what happened. "And she started drinking pretty early. Its the weekend, they both start pretty early during the weekend. Dad was screaming at me, and was screaming at mom, and mom was screaming at us both. And dad sorta slapped mom a little and..." He paused and looked at the sky. His eyes had that far-away stare that she recognized from when Buffy tried to talk about things she didn't want to talk about.

Xander finally brought his head back down. The misery was still there, but the shame had been replaced by anger. "You ever hear that saying about how shit rolls downhill? Well, I'm the bottom of the hill. Dad gave it to mom, and mom gave it to me. She'd already downed half a bottle of vodka by then. When I didn't move fast enough, she picked up the ruler. Its this big, heavy brass ruler; two feet long, maybe two inches wide. Solid brass. It belonged to her dad, and I think he used it to beat her and her sisters when they were kids. Thing must weigh eight or nine pounds. Its her go-to instrument when it comes to laying down the law." He chuckled, but it was not a happy sound. "She even uses it on Dad sometimes."

Dawn just nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Don't... do _not_ pity me. I don't want you to pity me." Xander waved at her, as if trying to brush away her feelings.

"Its not pity. Its empathy." Dawn pulled away from the curb, driving one-handed. "I hate what you're going through, and want to fix it. Make it better"

"Yeah, well, I appreciate the thought, but you can't fix this. There's no better."

"And still I'm going to try." Before letting his hand go, she brought his knuckles to her lips. "And still I'm going to try."

He sat up in his seat and took a long, slow breath through his nose. "What do you intend to do? Its no use calling social services. One of our neighbors did that once, and nothing came of it. Beating up my dad won't help, and I won't let you beat up my mom."

She thought about it. "I'm a millionaire and I have lawyers who love me like a favorite niece. Trust me, Xander."

"I do trust you. I just..." Xander waved his thought off. "Its hard, I guess."

She turned into the parking lot of the High School and found a parking space. "Sure. Hey, think your folks will care if you spend the night somewhere else tonight? You could stay at my place for the weekend if you want."

"What – stay at your place? Dawn, I like you, and, uh, I like spending time with you, but that's a little fast, don't you think? Not that I don't appreciate the thought, but, uh..."

Dawn blushed. From her sister, she'd known what sort of horn-dog Xander could be, and what sort of gentleman. Right now, she knew that he was simultaneously picturing them in bed together as well as deciding to be utterly noble about it. "I have spare rooms, Gutter-Mind. Jeez!" She turned the car off and opened her door. "And it doesn't have to be my place. Could be Jesse's, or Willows. Heck, even Giles place."

They both stopped and looked at each other.

"Okay, not Giles place." Dawn said as they both grinned. "The point is, you'll be out of that house for a while. For tonight, anyway."

Xander was quiet. He didn't say anything again until they were almost to the library.

"So... you have guest rooms?

**XxxxxxX**

Rupert Giles and Lydia Lamontagne conferred in the library's office. They weren't sure of the next steps they should take, but given the story they were just told by Xander's friends, they knew they have to do something.

"I suppose we should call the authorities. I'm just not sure which authorities we should call. And can we reach them on a Saturday?" Lydia was writing furiously in her notebook. "I think, Mr. Giles, that it would be better for you to make the calls, as you're a school official."

"That actually is more of a hindrance than you think. If I call in my position as school librarian, I have to do it with the prior approval of the school administration, unless I want to risk being dismissed." Giles rubbed his forehead. "Principal Flutie is... less than invested in the students here, and the less said about that vile little man in the Vice-Principal's office the better. No, I think you should make the call, as the, er, 'guardian' as it were of the young man's girlfriend."

"His girlfriend? You mean Dawn?" Lydia would have laughed were it not for the context of the conversation. "You don't think their relationship has advanced to the point of calling each other girlfriend and boyfriend, do you? From what Dawn said, they've only known each other two days."

"I saw how the young lady in question acts around the boy. Its only a matter of time. I suspect that Miss Summers will chase him until he's caught her." Giles smiled. "Despite it being against tradition, I think it might do both Miss Summers and Mr. Harris some good."

"How so?"

"My father always believed that a Slayer who had something to fight for lived longer than those that didn't. He wasn't so sure about the restrictions on outside attachments as was strictly proper. You might be aware that he was the Watcher for Slayer Elspeth Jones from her calling in 1959 to her death in 1963. She, well, the truth was, he did more than just train her, he made her a part of our family. She was almost an older sister to me. I was only five when she came into our lives, but I saw her as the older sister I never had. I was heartbroken when she died, as was my father. But she made it just over four years as a Slayer, so perhaps he was right."

"And Xander?"

Lydia's question caused Giles to laugh. "Trust me. I speak with some experience here. Having someone as pretty and dynamic as Dawn Summers show interest in him will do wonders for Mr. Harris's self-confidence, and might make it easier for him to find help for his parental situation."

Lydia was about to respond when Willow poked her head through the door. "Excuse me? Um, Doctor Giles? Doctor Lamontagne" Willow bit her lip, not sure what the protocol for this was, or even if there was a protocol for it. She hadn't intended to tell the two Watchers about Xander's home life, but they started asking questions and being all adult and leany and outraged.

She swallowed. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions? I was sitting out there, flipping through a couple of the books, just, you know, trying to put everything into perspective. I wrote down a list of questions that came up while I was thinking about things, and I sort of realized that I had, like, no reference to base anything on, so I decided I might as well just go to the source, you know? And the source would be you and Doctor Lamontagne. And since you're both professors sort of I guess this would be, like, a teaching opportunity, sort of. So can I?"

Lydia and Giles stared at the girl. Lydia turned to her colleague and asked, with a wry smile, "Did Miss Rosenberg even breathe at all, just now?" She glanced at the two teenage boys, who were grinning.

"No idea." Giles, like Lydia, was more amused than irritated by the girl's speech. "Well, Miss Rosenberg -"

"Willow. Please, call me Willow." Willow's breath caught. "Oh, sorry for interrupting. I'm usually not that rude. Please. Go on." She made the universal sign of 'locking her mouth closed and tossing the key'.

"Its all right, I assure you. As bad habits go, running on isn't anywhere near as bad as they can get." Giles again smiled, trying to reassure the girl. "So you have question and would like us to answer them?"

"Yes. Like I said, I made a list." She pulled a red spiral-bound notebook out of her backpack. It had Hello Kitty on the front of it. "So, the first question is, uh, when did we – I mean people – start forgetting about the supernatural? Because it seems from folklore that we knew about it once."

"Oh, well, um..." Lydia looked to Giles, then back to Willow. "Most scholars within the Council who have studied this phenomenon believe it to have its beginnings with the followers of Galileo and Newton. The development of the scientific process, basing knowledge on evidence and not superstition, and so on."

"Hmm. Interesting." Willow wrote the answer in her notebook. "How long have the Watchers been, uh, Watching?"

"Well, the Council as it exists today dates back to Venice, around the year 800." Giles began. "Before that, details are, um, slightly sketchy, you understand. But from what is taught to trainee Watchers, there has been one organization or the other working to support the Slayer in her sacred duty since around the start of the second millennium BCE."

"Huh. So the Slayers have been around longer than the Watchers?"

"Its commonly believed so, yes. But we have no real idea. There aren't any records beyond a certain point, and the records for anything before the sixth century become so rare as to be almost non-existent."

Willow was nodding and writing. "Just how many Slayers have there..."

Jesse poked his head through the door. "Hey! They're here!"

"We'll continue the question-and-answer later, Miss. Rosenberg." Lydia said as she climbed to her feet.

"Of course! These are just curiosity questions." Willow responded as she followed the Watchers out into the main library.

"Hi Willow!" Dawn smiled and greeted everyone. "Good morning, Giles. Lydia! Did you bring your stuff? We can move it into your room tonight. Get you all situated!" She opened her mouth to bring up Buffy's arrival, then closed it again. She wasn't officially supposed to know her sister, and thus wasn't officially supposed to recognize them.

Beside her, Xander was quiet standing quiet. He smiled and waved, nonetheless.

"Yes. In fact, we, uh, or rather your friends, they decided that what really needed to happen was an unpacking party at your house." Lydia pulled her suitcase to the counter top. "So we're going to postpone the physical evaluation until later."

"Wow. So I drove all the way here just to go back home?" Dawn shook her head at the situation. "I could have slept in."

"Well, we tried calling, but you had apparently already left." Willow began. "And nobody here has the number to your mobile phone."

"I wasn't even aware that you had a mobile phone." Lydia said. She looked at Giles, who shook his head. "Aren't those expensive?"

"Frighteningly, but my attorneys insist. I was sure I gave you the number." At the various blank looks and shaken heads, Dawn nodded. "Okay then. She took a slip of scrap paper from behind the library counter and wrote her cell phone's number down five times. She tore the paper into strips and handed one to each person. "There. Let me know if you lose it before you have a chance to write it down." Giles and Lydia immediately wrote the number down. Willow, Xander, and Jesse shoved the strip of paper in a pocket.

And then it occurred to her. "Oh, forgot to mention. Mr. Giles, I've got a new neighbor moving in a couple of houses down. Think it might be Buffy?"

"It certainly could be. I suppose there wouldn't be any harm to dropping by after we were done at your home."

"Cool! Let's go."

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in association with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television. _Back to the Future_ is owned by Universal Pictures, in conjunction with Amblin Entertainment. _Twilight Zone_ is owned by CBS Television Studios. All I own is the idea and the words.


	5. You Had Me At Hello

**You Had Me At Hello**

**XxxxxxX**

_Now if you feel that you can't go on_

_Because all your hope is gone_

_And your life is filled with much confusion_

_Until happiness is just an illusion_

_And your world around is crumbling down_

_Darling, reach out!_

– _**The Four Tops**__, "Reach Out (I'll Be There)_

**XxxxxxX**

From the living room, the sound of Etta James telling everyone that something had a hold on her could be heard. The fact that Dawn even knew who Etta James was had inordinately pleased her new Watcher, and Lydia had insisted they put her on as dinner music.

_The Best Of Etta James_ CD had now repeated twice, but no one minded. Dawn handed the plate to Xander, who obediently dried it with his dish towel and put it away in the cupboard. A trio of forks and a handful of serving spoons, then three glasses followed. They had concluded their day of unpacking with a celebratory take-out order from the Golden Duck Chinese Takeout, which remarkably delivered after dark, unlike nearly every take-out joint and pizza place in Sunnydale.

Giles had left around six, intent on stopping by and welcoming his Slayer to her new town; Willow had decided that it was only neighborly to accompany him, say hello to the new girl, and welcome her to Sunnydale. Dawn had thought that was a great idea. Jesse, citing his parents, had left for home about the same time.

"You know, Dawn, this place did come with a dishwasher." His eyebrow quirked in that manner that Dawn thought cute. He tapped the machine, which was installed in the counter where he was standing.

"I know, but we only had a handful of dishes. It would have been inefficient and wasteful. Besides, this was fun. You and me, standing at the sink, doing the dishes. Fun!"

"Quite the romantic gesture." Lydia's voice came from behind them. As one, Dawn and Xander turned to look at the Watcher, who was still at the kitchen table.

"What?" Xander asked. He'd tossed the dishtowel over his shoulder like he was an Italian waiter. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just taking note of something. Nothing more." Lydia smiled, then turned back to the book. Dawn spent a few minutes gathering up the remaining debris from their Chinese take-out feast, then pointed Xander towards the garbage. She saw his eyes widen as if she had suddenly caught fire. But then his shoulders slumped and he nodded. She rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek and a hug.

The kitchen door had hardly closed behind him when Lydia snarked, "No, no romance there at all."

"Oh hush, you. I like him. I like him a lot." Dawn sat down next to her Watcher.

"Yes, I can see that. It's remarkable how much you like him, seeing as you've only known him for what... two days? Three?"

"So what are you reading?" Dawn hastily changed the subject. She leaned toward Lydia, trying to read the words on the page. "Is that Latin?"

"Yes, it is." Lydia didn't lift her eyes. Instead, she took two bites of her Lo Mein and turned the page. "This is, ah, a book of prophecy. I'm trying to see if there's, hurm, anything in it that talks about you, or about multiple slayers at one time."

"Oh? Cool! Is it the Pergamun Codex?" Dawn continued to lean.

"Oh my, no. The last known copy of that book was lost in the 15th Century. This is a reprinting of the collected Sybelline Books."

Reading a different language upside down and sideways was harder than she thought. "Um... surget in messem innocentibus mare magnum malum... that's something about a great evil in the west and a harvest of some kind. A harvest of the innocent maybe?"

"Look at you, all speaky with the Latin!" Xander closed the door behind him and sat next to Dawn. He took one of her hands in his own.

"Yes, remarkable. I was unaware you could read Latin, Dawn." Lydia pushed her plate back. "That will help considerably when the time comes to research this or that foe. Are you fluent?"

"Sort of. I'm also good with Greek, French, and German, and I can read Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian, though I'm not that good yet with Sumerian."

"Well, that will certainly be helpful." The Watcher looked around at the kitchen. Other than the table, everything was in its place. She'd been surprised when the teenagers had moved to clean up after dinner without any prompting.

"So what does it mean?" Xander asked.

"Hmm? What does what mean?"

"The thing with the evil western innocent farming?" Xander looked at the book. It was clear he couldn't make heads nor tails of it.

"I don't know, exactly. It certainly sounds ominous, though." Lydia closed her book. "It wasn't relevant to what I was looking for. So, what do you two have planned for the evening?"

Dawn looked at Xander. "I was thinking we can put a movie on in the living room. Maybe some talking. I feel the need to talk." She glanced toward Xander from beneath her lashes and blushed.

"Talking. That's what they're calling it now?"

"Lydia!"

The Watcher smirked again. "I'm heading up to my room. My flight leaves early, and I hate sleeping on airplanes. You two don't stay up too late; you did promise to drive me to the airport."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Yes, mom."

At that, Lydia froze in place. After a moment she smiled, then gave Dawn a kiss on the forehead. "Be good, both of you."

Xander and Dawn followed her into the living room, wishing Lydia a good night as the older woman walked up the stairs. They argued over which video to watch before settling on _The Mask _starring Jim Carrey_._ Dawn, it turned out, did own a DVD player, one of the first in wide distribution, but her DVD library consisted of four movies: _The Mighty Ducks, That Darn Cat, Bambi, _and _The Jungle Book._

Apparently D'Hoffryn's idea of a joke was to turn Dawn into a huge Disney geek. This theory was reinforced by the number of Disney-related knick-knacks they'd pulled out of various boxes that now decorated display cases and shelves in the living room, framed animation cells and other art that was now hanging on the walls, and a veritable mountain of Disney trading pins, all in collector cases. Most of her VHS collection was also Disney movies. Not only that, but Dawn could bring to mind entire volumes of useless trivia regarding Walt Disney and his creations.

What was worse, she was really geeking out over her Disney stuff. She'd never geeked out over Disney before. She realized intellectually that she wasn't actually a Disney fan. She knew it as a fact. But her first impulse when Xander started talking about movies was to suggest _Sleeping Beauty_, the Disney animated version.

When she saw D'Hoffryn again, she was going to have words with him.

Dawn and Xander snuggled on the couch and started the movie. They made it all the way to the moment where Jim Carrey finished singing 'Cuban Pete' before the necking started. It had started with some casual touches, holding hands, and Dawn leaning her head on Xander's shoulder. The kissing started lightly, and then moved into more passionate, heated contact.

Eventually, Dawn had straddled Xander's lap and taken his head in her hands. She was kissing him open-mouthed, exploring his mouth and tongue with her own. She began unconsciously grinding down on his lap, and could feel the physical response this caused. She brought her hands down to his chest while she leaned into him and moved her mouth to his ear. She nibbled on the lobe before following the line of his jaw and then down his neck with kisses.

While they were kissing she was are of his hands making tracery lines along her back and sides, but it hadn't registered that his hands were under her shift until they moved along her stomach and one of his fingertips ran along the bottom of her right breast. It was utterly accidental, but it also wasn't the light brushing of casual contact.

Dawn's eyes got wide, and Xander's matched her. They both sat back, as far as they could get away from one another without actually moving out of contact. Xander sat up straightened in his seat, jostling Dawn as he tried to make her weight more comfortable across his legs. He swiftly moved his hands away from her. Xander tried to tuck his hands under his legs, but she caught first the one and then the other in her own. They were quiet, watching each other and holding hands.

"I, uh, I guess we really need to slow down some." Xander said. Dawn could tell that he was trying to defuse the situation.

Dawn was still breathing heavy; her heart was racing and there was an urge in the back of her mind to simply rip his clothes off and be done with the whole thing. It was an unfamiliar urge. Not the sexual attraction; she'd been there and done that. It's just that the last time she'd felt like this, her own fingers and the vibrator Tara had bought for her after they had what Dawn thought of as _That Awkward Discussion Mom Never Got Around To Before She Died _had been enough. Now, there was something that demanded more. And besides, Mister Funtime, as Dawn had dubbed the vibrator, hadn't made the transition to the new world.

Dawn suddenly had a new insight on Buffy, Faith, and their particular attitudes toward sex. If they had to deal with this all the time, it was no wonder why Faith was a total slutbomb and Buffy gave it away to any beefstick who got close enough for her to be interested. Even after stopping, there was a warm tingle coming from the pit of her stomach, and she could feel that her nipples were hard as pencil erasers. The last thing she wanted was to stop. But stopping was necessary. At least right now. She might think they were ready, but Xander didn't, and the last thing she wanted was to scare him away.

"Yeah. Yeah, slowing down is good. Slowing down is definite a good."

"Don't get me wrong here, Dawn, you're beautiful and sexy and I think you're great, and I cannot believe I'm about to say this, because hey I'm a guy. Its just I don't think we're ready to take our clothes off with each other. We haven't known each other all that long. I still want to get to know you." Xander had locked eyes with her, and his eyes were begging her to understand. "And besides, Lydia asked us to behave, and I sort of promised her I would."

"No, no, I agree. I agree. We're not ready yet." Dawn was nodding. She pushed herself off of his legs and flopped onto the couch beside him. She sprawled and put her shoeless feet – she had never understood her mother's insistence that they wear shoes inside the house when it wasn't necessary and had set down rules about it earlier that day – into his lap and stretched backward. This had the double effect of keeping her in contact with him, while simultaneously giving him the needed space.

"Yet?" Xander grinned at her. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. "You just said yet."

She shrugged. "I'm an optimist."

They sat there in the quiet, thinking.

"I think I can deal with yet." Xander started rubbing Dawn's feet through her socks, and she almost started purring.

"So..." Dawn started.

"Yeah. Um... maybe, um, maybe this would be a good time to set some boundaries." Xander shifted his attention to her other foot. "You know, rules?"

"Rules?" She was about to laugh until she caught the serious look on his face. She sat up straighter at that. "What kind of rules?"

"Rules to cover times like this. You know, covering things we are and are not allowed to do with each other. That way we have limits to how hot and heavy we get."

"I don't know if it works that way, Xander. I mean, heat of the moment, last thing we're going to be thinking about are rules."

"Still..."

Dawn thought about it. "Okay, let's hear your proposal."

"Well, like... Okay..." Xander grinned. "My proposal. First rule." He held up a finger. "Until we both agree we're ready, we keep all our clothes on when we're, um, smooching. And there will be more smooching. I like smooching."

That got her to raise an eyebrow. "Smooching? Really?"

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, what do you think?"

"Sure." She laughed. "Clothing stays on at all times while smooching."

"Right. Okay. Um... second rule... second rule." Xander held up a second finger. "How about holding hands and little romantic touches like my doing this..." He leaned over and ran his hand down her shoulder to her elbow. "... are allowed. With me so far?"

"Okay, with you so far, I guess. I just wonder why we have to have..."

"We just do. I have some worries and I'm trying to assuage them." Xander shrugged.

"Wait. You're a teenage boy. Aren't you supposed to be constantly undressing me with your eyes and getting into my panties and stuff? And is assuage even really a word?"

"Yes, it means to satisfy. Don't get distracted." Xander looked at her hand and the two extended fingers. "Oh yeah... so... how about this for rule three. You are allowed to touch me anywhere above my belt, over my clothes if it's a spot that's normally covered in clothes. Under the clothing is off limits." It seemed to Dawn that he realized how final he was being, because he hastily added, "Uh... for now."

"Okay." She wiggled a foot at him and he resumed the foot rub. "But what about you touching me."

"Same rule." Dawn cocked an eye at him and smirked. Xander opened his mouth to ask what she was thinking when he realized. "Oh! No, wait... um... I can, uh. I can touch you above the belt over the clothes except for the, uh..." He flapped one of his hands over his own chest. "Um..."

"They're called breasts, Xander. You can say it."

Xander blushed. "I'm trying to keep this as, uh... as, you know. Official."

"I think the word you want is 'clinical'." Dawn laughed. "So, I can play with yours, as long as it's over the clothes, but you can't play with mine? That doesn't sound fair."

"Come on, Dawn, it's different." Xander wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh, I'm going to have a lot of fun showing you that its not. I'm betting you're at least as sensitive as I am." Dawn leered at him. "This is going to be fun."

"Dawn... that's not the point."

"No, I get it, Xander. Its okay. I just was having a little fun with the double standard."

"So, what... are you telling me its okay to play with your boobs?" Dawn was amused by the fact that Xander was more scandalized than she was at the thought.

"Not necessarily. I just think its funny that you would let me play with yours but not claim boobage rights with me."

"Okay, maybe this was a bad idea." Xander rubbed his chin. He looked utterly discombobulated.

"No, it was a good thought. Its just the execution was sloppy." Dawn thought about it before saying, "How about this. If we're making out and we get really excited, how about we just be aware of what the other person is comfortable with and what they aren't and respect their choices. That would work better than us having a list of rules."

"But how will I know what makes you uncomfortable?"

"I'll tell you, Xander. And you'll tell me." She rolled forward, rearranging herself on the couch so she was sitting on her knees. With a smile, she leaned in and kissed him.

"What are you doing, Dawn?"

"Trying to make you more comfortable, poopy-head." And she kissed him again. "If you're nervous about us getting all physical, then we'll be careful and not get too physical." Taking one of his hands in her own, she pulled herself closer. "Look, Xander... do you like me?"

"What? Yeah, of course."

"Do you respect me?"

Xander gave her a 'what the hell?' expression. "I'd be an idiot not to. You can break me like a matchstick."

She gave his hand a squeeze. "Okay. Do you think I'm hot?"

He laughed. "God yes."

"Are you thinking of me as your girlfriend yet?"

"Well, I dunno... I hadn't thought of it." Xander shrugged. "I mean, we're spending time together, and we're kissing." His eyes got wide. "Is that how you think of me? As your boyfriend?"

"Well, unofficially. I wasn't going to say anything, but here's my thought. I intend to go out with you, and we're spending time with each other, and I got no plan of going out with anyone else while I'm dating you. So yeah, sort of I guess you are my boyfriend. You don't have to agree just yet, but it would help if you eventually did.

"Um... okay." He still looked confused. "Its just... you're... Dawn, don't take this wrong, but you seem to be rushing this. What aren't you telling me?"

Dawn shrugged. "I just like you a lot. I don't know." She was terrified of scaring him off now that he was here. "I guess... I lost everyone else in my life, including the only guy I ever really had any sort of feelings for. And now I'm afraid of losing my chance because I'm afraid it might disappear." Her eyes widened as she realized that it was true.

"But I'm not going anywhere."

"Xander, this is Sunnydale, and I'm a Slayer. I wasn't thinking of you going anywhere." Dawn stood up and looked around the room. "And there's probably a big bunch of got no family going on here."

"Oh." Xander stared at her. "Dawn, are you into me because you're desperate for company and want to feel something, or are you into me because you like what you see in me?"

_Damn. The one who sees does it again._ Dawn paced. "Its all you. I know we've only known each other for a couple of days, but I like what I see."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Xander. Yeah." She stopped pacing and sat back down next to him. "And there's one more thing I should tell you. Um... wow, where to begin. Okay, this is how it was explained to me, okay? With Slayers, everything with us is, uh, more."

"More." His expression turned it into a question.

"Yeah. We're all, Slayers I mean, we're all... jazzed up... I guess. Stronger, faster, harder to hurt. You knew all that, right?" At his nod, she said, "Well, in addition to all that being ramped up we tend to get hyperactive if we just sit too long. If we can't stay active, we fidget. And, uh, well..." Dawn stopped. "I really don't know a better way to put this, but we suffer from what someone once called the H&H's."

"And H&H stands for..."

"Hungries and Hornies." Dawn blushed. "When we get hungry we get really hungry. I can eat a person three times my size under the table. And when we get, uh, worked up, we really, really get worked up. And not only that, but we get worked up easy. I mean, real easy. So, uh, if I seem to be a little physically aggressive as far as us getting physically, um, aggressive, its because I can't help it. I'll try to keep it on a leash, though. I don't want to force you into anything."

"All right." He still looked thoughtful. "So, uh, boyfriend and girlfriend then."

"Good!" Dawn took his hand again. "Do you mind if I kiss you again?" He shook his head and she did. "Good." And with that, she pulled his hand up and placed it over her left breast and held it there. "And Xander, I don't mind my boyfriend touching me. We can keep our clothes on until we're ready not to, but seriously? I don't mind."

Xander was staring at her hand over his, but wasn't saying anything. She took pity on him by letting his hand go. He stared at her hand, then moved his eyes up to hers, then back down to her hand.

"Really, Xander. Its okay." At the sound of her voice, he jerked his arm back.

He looked at his hand, then her breast, then back to his hand. "That was, uh, I haven't ever..."

"Oh wow." Dawn nodded in understanding. "Okay, I get it. Its okay. Congratulations!"

"Congratulations?"

She nudged him in the shoulder. "Second base! A landmark in every young man's life." She couldn't help but giggle.

"Its not funny."

Dawn immediately straightened up. "You're right. Its not. Sorry." The pair looked at each other, then both of them burst out laughing. Xander held his arms out, and Dawn obliged with a hug.

"We're missing the movie." Dawn tilted her head and rested it on his shoulder. Onscreen, the Girl Next Door was about to betray Stanley Ipkiss to the crime boss. Not moving apart, the two of them shifted to be more comfortable and watched the rest of the movie.

**XxxxxxX**

At 2 am, Dawn paused at the door of what had been arbitrarily labeled 'the guest room' by Lydia and Xander, but that she had already started thinking of as 'Xander's room' because she intended him to stay there as often as possible. Nothing. Just sleep-noises. Xander surprisingly wasn't a snorer. She continued to Lydia's door and listened. Lydia, on the other hand, had a very light snore. It wasn't enough to carry very far, but it was constant. Dawn grinned as she tiptoed down the stairs.

In the kitchen, Dawn pulled out her new phone book and opened up the White Pages. There were three numbers for Meers, none of which were for a Warren Meers. Given that Warren was still a senior at Sunnydale High, Dawn figured it made sense. She copied the addresses down to each house. Might take her most of the night to check them all, but she was a Slayer. The ability to get by with hardly any sleep was a thing.

As quietly as she could she put her car into neutral and pushed it out into the road. Only then did she start it up and drive off. She noted that her Mom's light was still on, as she passed, and vowed to visit them the next day. Right now, though, she was a bit busy.

The first house was completely dark.

She stared at it for a long, long time, wondering what she was doing. "Ugh! Get a hold of yourself. Its just reconnaissance. Xander always said you don't go in without intel. I'm just gathering intel." She jumped out of her car and ran, in a semi-crouch, to the house. A quick check of the ground-floor windows showed no signs of life. Neither did the windows of the basement. She went around to the back of the house, double checked to make sure no one was looking, and scaled the wall to the roof like a spider-monkey.

"Okay... let's not slip this time." Dawn moved from window to window, checking on each room's occupant. None of them looked like Warren. With careful ease, she dropped to the ground, bending at the knee and hip to cushion the impact.

There was a light on upstairs at the second house. She was more careful, more cautious about approaching this one. She again checked the ground floor windows, which were all dark. The basement windows were lit up, and it was there that she saw pay-dirt. Warren Meers was asleep, slouched over at a table. There were plans and schematics all over it, and a computer. Nearby, a metal framework that looked a lot like a human skeleton hung from a frame.

"Hasn't built the girlfriend yet."

Dawn headed back to her car. She memorized the address, and the route between this house and her own. She didn't know yet what she was going to do about Warren, but she knew she was going to do something. Maybe feed him to a vampire. Maybe find a gun somehow and shoot him in the heart with it.

That idea appealed to her a great deal.

She thought about the other deaths – the words 'murders' and 'assassinations' flitted through her head – that she was planning. Despite the fact that she was merely mortal, Maggie Walsh was probably going to be much harder to get to than Richard Wilkins. Wilkins, on the other hand, was a sorcerer and probably much more dangerous. And she didn't even know if Doctor Walsh was in town yet.

"I can check that out with a phone call." She pulled into the drive, and snuck back into the house easy as pie.

Wilkins had a mansion or something on the north side of town. Dawn knew that he wasn't married, but the man summoned demons. Who really knew what would be crawling around his house. The more she thought of it, the more she wondered if she shouldn't just get Buffy involved. Dawn was sure that if she went looking, she could find evidence against the mayor, and that would make him a Slayer problem.

Dawn smiled at the thought. Make it a Slayer problem and the Council and Buffy would jump in.

**XxxxxxX**

Xander had always come out of sleep pretty-much wide awake, and this time was no different. At first he was a bit disoriented. This wasn't his room; where the hell was he? He remembered after a few minutes of staring at the strange ceiling. Dawn's house. He was at Dawn's house. Once Xander had that sorted, he began to realize what it was that had woke him up.

He stumbled in the darkness until he found the bathroom door and stepped inside. Xander had downed nearly a half-gallon of soda earlier, and was now paying the price for it. He stood in front of the toilet and took care of business. Giving the usual male sigh of relief at being able to pee, Xander finished up, rearranged his boxers, and then froze. He stared at the lit candles on the sink.

"Candles?" Why were there candles there? Who left candles burning all night? Didn't they realize it was a fire hazard? Xander leaned over to blow the first candle out when he froze. Very, very slowly he straightened up. He closed his eyes and shook his head, and when he opened them he turned to look over his shoulder at the bathtub.

It was full of water that was apparently so hot it was steaming just a little, soap bubbles, and a naked Dawn Summers.

"Um..." Xander wanted to say something. Something that was, if not smooth and clever, at least something conciliatory and apologetic that would spare him a potential beating. "Um..." He couldn't help staring at her. Even with the fact that the bubbles were covering everything, he was still getting a better view of her than he'd seen thus far. Her long dancer's legs were propped up on the tub's spigot, and her shoulders were exposed almost to her...

Xander caught himself and suddenly locked himself on the ledge of the frosted window. There were more lit candles there.

"Couldn't sleep."

It took a moment before Xander realized that Dawn had said something. His attention was fully taken up with not looking at her hands and what she was covering up with them. Dawn, on the other hand, seemed to be playing it very cool.

"Huh?" His confusion was obvious.

"I said, I couldn't sleep. So I thought maybe a bath would help."

"Uh... okay... um, Dawn. Were you in here when I was..." He stopped, realizing that was a hugely idiotic question. _No, Xander, she waited until you were in mid-piss and then somehow teleported herself and a tub-full of soapy water into the bathtub while you weren't looking._ "Um, look, Dawn, forget I said that. That was stupid. I'll just, um..." He waved toward the door. Before he left, he paused without turning to look at her. "Enjoy your, um..."

"Xander." He paused in the doorway at the sound of her voice. "Its okay." He nodded without looking at her and got out of the room as quickly as possible.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn waited until she could his door shut before pulling her head completely under the water. _Oh my God!_ Xander had made his best effort to be the perfect gentleman, but unfortunately there was one reaction he hadn't been able to control, and Dawn couldn't help but notice when the results of that reaction poked their way through the fly in his underwear. _No wonder Anya called him a viking._

Dawn ignored the flare of warmth that thought created. It was just the thrill of illicit activities that all teenagers seemed addicted to. That was all. It wasn't anything else. They were going to take it slow.

_Next time_, she thought to herself, _I__ have got to remember to lock the door._

**XxxxxxX**

It amazed Dawn that they could walk Lydia all the way up to the gate until she suddenly realized why that was: the September 11th attacks hadn't happened yet. The tenor of the nation hadn't become so bad that every single human being who dared want to get onto an airplane was considered a mad bomber. When Dawn made the realization, she actually considered telling someone... but who could she tell outside of the government or the military? And if she told the government or the military, the first thing they'd do is wonder just how she got the information. That way led to prison cells and intense interrogations.

"What has you so glum? Missing me already?" Lydia had caught Dawn's expression.

"Hey, everything all right?" Xander jogged to catch up. He was pulling Lydia's suitcase and had fallen behind. Dawn just shrugged. The idea that she really couldn't do anything about the al-Queda attacks suddenly had her depressed.

"Hey, now. Don't. It's going to be okay. It really will." Lydia stopped and pulled Dawn into a hug, and it was only then that Dawn realized they were almost the same height. "I don't know why you're suddenly sad, but I can guess. I'm coming back. I promise."

Dawn shrugged. "It's just..." She went silent and shrugged.

"It's okay. I know, every single adult you've had close to you has left and its made you a bit sensitive to separation." Lydia gave her another hug, and Dawn returned it. It wasn't the issue, but it worked for one. "I know that we haven't known each other for very long, but I can tell you're worried I'm not going to come back. I assure you, Dawn, I'm coming back. And in the meantime, if you need anything I'm sure you can go to Mr. Giles for help."

Dawn smiled. The truth was, Lydia wasn't complete off base. She enjoyed the idea of having Lydia around as sort of a big sister figure, given the oddness of the relationship between herself and her actual family. Lydia put an arm around her Slayer, rubbing her far shoulder. "I'll be back next Saturday. I look forward to spending a lot of time getting to know you, and not just as your Watcher. So keep your chin up."

"Your colleagues are here." Xander pointed over Dawn's shoulder. The three of them nodded to the other two Watchers, Phillip and Nigel, who had just arrived. The nods were returned. The two men were formal, but not unfriendly.

"Call me, okay? When you get to London?" Dawn gave Lydia another hug. "Maybe once or twice during the week, and before you leave? I have to know when to come pick you up, after all."

"I will. While I'm gone I want you to make sure your homework is taken care of, and keep the house clean. Try and get to know the other Slayer; you'll be working with her extensively and I'm sure the two of you will work better together if you are friends." Lydia turned to Xander. "And you, young man. I expect you to be on your best behavior. I am absolutely not comfortable leaving you and Dawn in the house by yourselves. Comport yourself as a gentleman or you'll answer to me."

"I'd never do anything to hurt Dawn. She's my friend." Xander smiled at Dawn.

"I know. But you're rapidly becoming more than friends, and you're both young. While it may be that there is a stereotype of the teenage male being so sex-crazed that even floor tile makes them aroused, I remember being a teenage girl and its just as true for them. Silly, sexist double-standard. Anyway, I do know what hormones do to teenagers. I'm not going to have a pregnant teenage Slayer on my hands. Are we clear?"

"You're clear. You're clear. Way to totally embarrass me. Thanks." Dawn rolled her eyes as she nudged Lydia's shoulder. Phillip and Nigel were already in the jet way tunnel, waiting for her. "Go get on your plane. Call me when you land. I don't care what time it is."

"I will. I'll see you when I get back." Lydia gave a little wave and took the handle of her suitcase. Dawn and Xander watched the three disappear out of sight.

"So. Its Sunday morning at quarter to seven in the morning and I'm wide awake, which is really a miracle of a semi-religious nature when you think about it." Xander clapped his hands together. "Got any ideas for the rest of the day?"

"Not really. But breakfast sounds pretty good." She eyed him for a second. "Do you want to talk about what happened last night?"

Xander grinned at her. "Not for all the money in the world. I'm thinking pancakes. Lots and lots of pancakes."

**XxxxxxX**

When he opened the door, Dawn and Xander strolled in past him without waiting for an invitation. Rupert Giles rolled his eyes in exasperation before closing the door. "By all means, make yourselves at home," me muttered.

He'd forgotten about the Slayer's enhanced hearing. "Thanks!" He watched as the new Slayer leaned toward the Harris boy and stage-whisper, "I told you he was a nice guy." Again, he rolled his eyes.

"Why are you here, Miss Summers?" Giles took his glasses off and pinched his nose until the headache subsided to acceptable.

"Well, we were headed over to Der Waffle Haus to partake in the all-you can eat breakfast buffet and wanted to know if you were interested in coming along.

"No, thank you. While I appreciate the gesture, I'm afraid I am joining the other Miss Summers and her mother and sister for breakfast so I can work out her training schedule." Giles put his glasses back on and sat down opposite the two young people. "We are going to try to arrange it so that your training schedule and hers are synchronous so you can train together, but we still have to hammer out the details. Naturally there might be some occasional discrepancies."

"Synchronous?" Xander whispered to her.

She whispered back, "Happening at the same time."

"Right. Synchronous."

Giles tried, but he couldn't resist a suppressed chuckle at the young man's antics. "Yes, well. In any case I was going to be leaving shortly." He paused. I take it you got Dr. Lamontagne off to her flight?"

"Yep. She and the other two are winging their way to the Mother Country as we speak." Dawn stood, and pulled Xander to his feet along with her. "We'll get out of your hair. Tell Buffy I'll drop by later to talk to her about patrolling and all." As they were heading toward the door, Dawn remembered the other thing. "I almost forgot. Have you called the Council yet for assistance in interpreting the dream I had about the Potential Slayer?"

"No, not yet. I didn't want to do that until we had some more information."

_And that's my cue._ "Okay. Well, I had another dream. It was a bit more detailed, and I actually talked to the Potential."

"You spoke to her?"

"Well, dream-her, you know. It wasn't really her-her." Dawn shrugged. "At least I don't think it was."

"Ah. I see, yes. That makes sense; it wasn't actually the girl but a dream representation of her. So what new information do you have?"

Dawn thought about how to best get the information across. She knew she had to get "You know how in the first dream the woman kept telling me to have faith and keep faith and all that? Well, the Potential's name is Faith. She's American, a year younger than me, and she's being trained by an older woman. I think she's in New England somewhere, 'cause she had one of those accents. Like from the Pepperidge Farms commercials. And I can't remember her last name, but its something Irish. I remember that much."

Giles thought about it, trying to see if any of Dawn's dream made sense. And of course, most of it did, but just enough didn't to be bothersome, just like all of the prophetic dreams experienced by Slayers. He went to his desk and started writing. "About fifteen, first name Faith, last name most probably Irish, being trained by a Watcher, somewhere in New England. All right, Miss Summers, I'll make the call." He started moving them out without making it look like he was rushing them away.

"Okay, thanks. Oh, I'm going to do a quick sweep of the locals before I go to bed tonight. Maybe around 10 o'clock. Just for a couple of hours. Did you want me to stop by before or after?"

"You're patrolling tonight?" Dawn nodded. "In that case, Miss Summers, if you want to stop off before you patrol that would be fine. You don't have to stop off after, but I wouldn't mind if you gave me a phone call. Should I send Buffy with you tonight?"

"You mean should you ask her if she wants to come along?" Dawn grinned. Giles nodded, chagrined. "That's up to Buffy. If she wants to come with me, I wouldn't mind the company, but its up to her."

"Very well. In that case, if I don't see you tonight I'll be waiting for your call."

He shut the door behind them, pondering the other Slayer and her companion. With a sigh, he turned his attention to more important matters. First a phone call, and then to see his own Slayer.

**XxxxxxX**

Giles checked the time. Boston was three hours ahead, so it was only 12:30 pm in Boston. He dialed the number given to him by the Council in England. It was picked up on the first ring.

"_Yo."_ The voice was young, and female.

"Ur... Hello?"

"_Yeah, who's this?"_ Very confident of herself. Almost cocky.

"My name is Rupert Giles. I am trying to reach Diana Dormer. Is this... is this Faith?"

Giles could almost feel the cockiness being replaced by caution. _"Yeah... Who are you again? Are you with the school? You don't need to talk to her about me, do you? It's been like, weeks since I did nothing I swear, and Jimmy Watts is lying if he says I started it..."_ The girl's earnestness was refreshing, especially considering what she was talking about.

"No, nothing like that. My name is Rupert Giles. I'm a Watcher, and I'm calling from Sunnydale, California. I have some important business to discuss with Diana Dormer, and if you are Faith Lehane, then yes, its about you. But I promise, you're not in any trouble. Is she in?"

"_Sunnydale? The Hellmouth? Oh! You're the Watcher Guy for the current Slayer. Whassername! Buffy! Yeah, I'm Faith. You want to talk to Lady Di about me? I hope its good news. I mean... sure, no prob, Watcher-Man. Just one sec, okay?"_

Giles heard the girl put the phone down. In the distance, she could hear her yell, _"Hey, Diana! There's this guy named Jeeves on the phone! He's calling from the Hellmouth!"_ Giles took a moment to curse the American public education system and rowdy tomboys. Though now that he thought about it, he was likely to get the same sort of guff from his own Slayer. He'd no sooner finished this thought, when an older voice, a woman's voice, picked up the line.

"_This is Diana Dormer, may I help you?"_

"Doctor Dormer, this is Rupert Giles. I'm the Field Watcher for the Slayer Buffy Summers here in Sunnydale."

"_Rupert Giles? Yes, I believe we met while you were still in the academy. You attended one of my lectures. How have you been, young man?"_

"Fairly well, actually. The reason I am calling is because you and your charge were the featured player in a prophetic dream experienced by Slayer Dawn Summers..."

"_I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with a past Slayer named Dawn Summers. Could you remind me?"_

"_Oh, she isn't a past Slayer. She's... ah, I suppose you could say she's the most recently called Slayer. She's been attending her Calling for a week now."_

"_Oh."_ There was a moment of deep silence. _"Doctor Giles... I'm sorry to hear about your own – and you're still working in the field after your Slayer's death? You must be a strong man indeed. I wish I had your dedication. My condolences regarding the death of your Slayer."_

"Er, well, thank you for the sentiment, but its quite unnecessary. You see, Buffy Summers is still alive. The Slayer Line has twinned itself. There are now two Slayers."

"_Two... how is that possible?"_

"No one has any idea at the moment. The Council is investigating as we speak. But the tests were performed and its true: there are now two Slayers. Interestingly, they seem to be distant cousins."

"_So you are now supervising two Slayers, then?"_ Giles could hear the clear curiosity in her voice.

"Oh, no. Slayer Dawn Summers Is being supervised by Lydia Lamontagne. Dr. Lamontagne had to return to England for a week, so I'm filling in, as it were."

"_Ah, I see. Well, that is interesting. Very interesting. I'd love to talk to you again some time about how the Slayer line could have twinned itself. But I assume you called on other business?"_

"Oh yes. Sorry, we did get a little sidetracked, didn't we. I'm sure that you're aware that each Slayer shares in the usual raft of talents and abilities to differing measures; some are more physically strong, while others are more agile, other have sharper senses and so on. Among Dawn's talents are prophetic dreams; she seems to get them semi-regularly, and they are unusually clear for such things compared to those demonstrated by past Slayers."

"_Well, that could become very useful."_ There were a few moments of silence. _"Should I take it that's the reason you are calling? She experienced a dream that somehow involved me or my Potential?"_

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Multiple times over the last several weeks, she has had a dream that focused on a young, dark-haired girl with – and these are Miss Summers' words – "smoky eyes and a 'tude", and her Watcher. According to our best analysis of the images that appeared to Dawn in her sleep, the dreams are a warning that you and your Potential will be targeted for a most gruesome death as sacrifices in some diabolic scheme pursued by the master vampire Kakistos. Dawn's Watcher and I have gone over the dreams she's described several times, and we both concur with the probably message behind them."

"_I see. Perhaps, then, Faith and I should relocate." Giles heard the other woman sigh. "It a beautiful time to visit England."_

"Actually, Dawn's dreams indicated that your safest move – and I cannot believe I am about to say this – is to relocate here, so that your Potential is covered by the two Slayers and their, um, team."

"_Did you just say team? To what team are you referring? I wasn't aware that it was Council policy for the Slayer to be a part of a team."_

"Ah, well... there are three students here who have sworn to assist the two Slayers with logistics and research. Naturally, they don't get involved in field operations. And since there are two Slayers now, they naturally would form a team."

"_And you allow this?"_

"Dr. Dormer, neither I nor Dr. Lamontagne had much of a choice. These students were presented to me by Dawn Summers in a _fait accompli_. Aside from shooting the three of them, there was very little I could do about it. Dawn, and later Buffy as well, argued that since we couldn't keep the students from getting involved, we might as well keep a watch on them and channel their efforts to something useful rather than just stand by and watch them get killed."

"_I suppose that is the more sensible approach, but it still feels odd. It flaunts tradition."_

"I certainly agree. But the truth is, Dawn Summers asked some pointed questions and pointed certain things out, and made me wonder just how valuable certain traditions really were."

"_Oh? Such as?"_

"For one thing, she pointed out that those Slayers who survived the longest were the ones who had, for lack of a better word, a team helping her out."

"_Did they really? I wasn't aware of that. I may have to research it."_

"Yes, well, I assume that if anyone at Council Headquarters discovered that our traditions were actually increasing the mortality of the Slayers instead of decreasing it..." Giles trailed off as a traitorous thought entered his mind. _What if the traditions were, in fact, designed to kill off Slayers before they got too old, too skilled, and too independent to be controlled easily by the Council? The Cruciamentum, administered at age 18, one of the most common ages of majority in the world, when the Slayer could legally walk away from their legal guardians, who were almost always Watchers, after telling them to go to Hell._ It was a dangerous thought, but it was a thought for another time.

He cleared his throat. "In any event, as I said Dawn suggested that it would be safer for you to move here and become integrated with the team. According to her, Kakistos will apparently follow you wherever you went otherwise to hide from him. She also pointed out that if you were here, Kakistos would have to fight off two Slayers in order to get to you. I concur. He is powerful, but he's not that powerful."

"_I see."_

The line was quiet for a long while.

"Doctor Dormer, are you still there?"

"_Oh, yes, I apologize. I was... ah... thinking. I'm going to talk to my Potential. She's a good girl, and smarter than she likes to show, but willful and independent."_

"Yes, I see." And Giles did see. "She sounded like a very vibrant young woman." Like many Watchers did, Diana Dormer had allowed herself to form a parental relationship with her charge. Even having only met her once, Giles could tell that Buffy Summers was a special girl, and he could easily imagine forming such a relationship with her. And Dawn Summers already had Lydia Lamontagne wrapped around her finger, and was treating her Watcher like an elder sister.

"_Doctor Giles, I will call you back, probably this evening, after I get a chance to consult the Council and talk to my Potential."_

"Certainly. I look forward to hearing from you."

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn and Xander's pancake feast was a success. What time they didn't spend eating pancakes they spent talking and being huge nerds together. They talked comic books and whether the entire Onslaught event Marvel was running just sucked or completely sucked. They made tentative plans to attend the next year's Comic Con in San Diego. They talked gaming, and Dawn again brought up the possibility of starting up a D&D group. They talked movies, and why it was that really stupid movies like _Independence Day _were nevertheless fun to watch.

And then Dawn mentioned that she hadn't had the opportunity to see _Jerry Maguire_, the new Tom Cruise film.

"You're serious? You haven't seen it yet? I mean, everyone's been talking about it. Everyone." Xander shook his head. "I mean, this is some powerful movie. Even guys like me who normally avoid the chick flick like the plague like this movie, Dawn! Its... its moving!"

Dawn shrugged. "Never seen it. Not really a chick flick girl. Disney animated movies and live-action comedies aside, I like westerns and shoot 'em ups and explosions."

"All right. We're done here." Xander waved his hand to catch the waitress's attention.

"What are you doing?"

Xander grabbed Dawn's hand and moved it so he could read her watch. "It's 10:32. The Stardust Theater at the Loop has an 11 o'clock matinee on the weekends. We're going to see a movie."

"You're serious?" It wasn't really a question.

"As a heart attack." The waitress handed Xander the check. Without looking he pulled his wallet out and fished the lone $20 out of it. And then he looked at the check. And then he looked at Dawn, who was smirking at him. He smiled, that nervous smile that told her he'd been caught.

"Let me guess..." Her smile was an evil smile. A devious smile she'd learned at the feet of Buffy Summers.

"Well, I'm a little shorter than I thought I was. I can, uh... well... I have a choice."

"A choice?"

"Yeah. Let me figure it out."

"No, let me. Do you want to buy the girl breakfast, or do you want to treat her to a movie." Dawn patted the hand still holding the twenty.

"Yeah, um... that's the choice. I, uh..." She couldn't believe it, he was actually blushing.

"Xander, sweetheart, the girl doesn't mind. The girl's loaded, remember?" She pulled her own wallet out of a pocket and withdrew her Visa. "I got breakfast. You get the tickets. And maybe the popcorn. Okay?"

"You sure?" He was clearly embarrassed

She took his hand in hers. "I want you to try very hard to get over this, okay? Its not my fault my folks died and left me a lot of money. Its not your fault your folks..." His face shifted and she stopped. "Xander, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad things. You never have to be ashamed of yourself around me. You just don't. So let's go back to having fun, okay?"

Dawn watched him nod and smile, that easy-going smile she learned long ago was his cover for nervousness and depression. "Right. I got the movie, and the popcorn."

Great!" Dawn forced herself to be cheerful. "So, its got Tom Cruise in it?"

"Yeah. And that guy from _Boyz in the Hood._ Gooding. Cuba Gooding. And Jay Mohr, who is a very underrated actor, in my opinion. And a _Saturday Night Live_ alumnus."

In the car, Xander started singing in low tones. His voice was pitchy, but it was earnest. "She'll let you in her house if you come knockin' late at night. She'll let you in her mouth if the words you say are right. If you pay the price she'll let you deep inside. But there's a secret garden she hides..."

"That's pretty. What is it?"

"Bruce Springsteen. Its the song he did for this movie we're seeing."

Dawn glanced at him. Then again. Driving made it hard to continue looking at him, but she kept shooting him weird looks. "I have to say I'm surprised."

"About what?"

"Most sixteen year old boys aren't this romantic."

"Yeah well, I guess I just have hidden depths." Xander shrugged. Dawn was quite, but she smirked. "Okay, what?"

"So what you're telling me is that there's a lot more to you than people think?" she asked.

"Absolutely."

"So, you're like... an onion."

"What?" Now Xander was confused.

"Well, onions have layers. You have layers. You get it? You both have layers." Dawn laughed.

"I guess."

"Of course, not everybody likes onions." Dawn made a face, as if she was thinking about it. "Cake! Everybody loves cake. Cakes have layers." She was quiet for another bit. Xander was looking at her strangely. "You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, 'Let's go get some parfait' and they say, 'Hell no, I don't like no parfait!' Parfaits are delicious."

"Parfait?" Xander's eyes squinted. He was obviously trying to figure it out. Dawn laughed again.

"Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet." She couldn't help it. The giggles hit her and she couldn't stop them. It was too bad that she had four or five whole years before _Shrek_ came out.

Three and a half hours later, while they were sitting on the couch in her living room, Dawn had practically dry humped Xander as a reward for being such a touching and romantic guy. As they promised each other, they kept all of their clothes on.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn sat in her car, watching the entrance to the bar, convincing herself that she actually wanted to do this.

She and Xander had spent the rest of the day at Buffy's house, helping them to unpack boxes and rearrange furniture. Her sister, her mom, and especially Younger Dawn had all kept the fiction going in front of Xander and Giles, who was also there, that they were third cousins once removed or something. Joyce had treated them to a roast chicken dinner, and the huge reminder of home and how homesick she was almost caused Dawn to lose it right there at the dinner table.

Afterward, Xander asked her to drop him off at his house. Despite assurances that he had a room reserved at her place, he thought it was politic to make an appearance. Personally, she thought he ought to move out and live with her full time, and not just because they were being lovey-dovey. For a short while she contemplated following Xander into Casa del Harris and rather forcefully explaining some new rules of living to Tony and Jessica Harris. But Xander wouldn't appreciate it, and she had the sneaky suspicion that the lesson would be forgotten.

And now here she was, sitting outside the Alibi Room. She wasn't sure if she was glad or disappointed that Buffy had begged off patrolling, but at least it gave her the room needed to do this.

Dawn took a couple of deep breaths. She grabbed her stakes and a pair of teak chopsticks from her purse. The rest she shoved under the front seat. While walking toward the door she wound her hair up into a tight bun and used the chopsticks to keep it in place. They'd serve as a secondary pair of weapons if necessary.

Dawn had heard stories about this place, but had never actually been to Willy's bar the first time around. It was everything Xander and Buffy and Faith had said it was: dingy, dark, and stinking of stale beer and bodily fluids. Dawn closed the door behind her, letting her eyes adjust to the different light levels.

There were a couple of vamps at the bar; they might try something. The back tables were filled with a handful of male Oden Tals – no trouble there; live and let live and all that – and a Mellish demon who was nursing a beer and singing along to the jukebox. Mellish's were sweethearts when you got to know them. And after a second, it occurred to her that she did. He was her garbage man. Imagine that. Dawn pushed off from the door and made her way to the bar. Within seconds everyone's eyes were on her, which is exactly what she wanted.

"Girly, if you're not 21, you can't come in here." The tone was dismissing and contemptuous. Willy was wiping out a beer mug behind the bar. His eyes cut over to the vampires, who were watching Dawn like a rattlesnake watches a mouse.

"I've got other business here tonight, Willy." She leaned over the bar, and waited until the three vampires had moved to surround her. Before anyone else could say anything, she took her favorite stake out and laid it on the bar in front of her. She was still staring at Willy and purposefully _not_ watching the vampires.

"Aw man..." The largest and toughest-looking of the vamps backed away, holding his hands up. "And here I thought the Slayer was still in LA." Dawn met his eyes and he rounded the far side of the bar. The other two vampires were also backing away, and she let them. After a short staring contest, she nodded and turned her attention back to the bar.

"So, uh, Slayer. Well... forget what I said earlier then. What can I get you? On the house!" Willy seemed desperate to be friendly now. Long gone was the contempt and the condescension.

"Give me a Corona, then. In a bottle. And you open it up here where I can see you." Dawn watched him like a hawk while he did so, and kept her eyes on him as she took a long pull from the bottle. She didn't like beer much, but she could tolerate it for the image it produced.

"So, uh... what can I do for you?"

"Well, for one thing you can keep Corona in a bottle in stock, and keep floating me when I come in here." Willy just nodded. "For another, I'm in the market for a particular item. This item is ridiculously hard for a person my age to acquire legally, so I figure I'd come down here and see if a scumbag like you can assist me."

"Uh, like what, Slayer?"

"I need a gun, Willy. Preferably something automatic. Police issue would be nice. And I'll pay extra if its got a nice, ugly unsolved murder attached to it. And by that I don't mean I want someone to kill someone just to get me a dirty gun, you understand? A piece stolen out of an evidence locker is fine, though."

Willy was clearly thinking about it. "That might be costly, Slayer. Might run you..."

"I'll pay two thousand, in cash, upon delivery. Final offer." Dawn drained the last of her beer, and refused the offer of a second.

"Uh... okay, I'll ask around to some of my friends and see what I can do." Willy tossed the empty bottle in the trash and wiped the bar where it had been sitting. "Come back on, uh, Tuesday."

"You surprise me, Willy." Dawn got up from her seat, turned, and addressed the bar. "There's something else and I'd like everyone here to hear it. Spread the word. If something big is going down, something earth-shattering, like someone trying to end the world or open the Hellmouth, and you give me a real, concrete, helpful tip-off on what's going on, you'll earn one of these."

Dawn took out a stack of red paper from her back pocket. They were made from red construction paper, and each had been marked 'Get Out of Slay Free' on both sides. "Here's the deal. If you give me good info, I'll pay you back with one of these. These..." She again flashed the red paper around "... mean I let you walk when I encounter you during a patrol instead of killing your ass."

"What, you'll just let us go?" One of the vamps had a truly incredulous look on his face.

"Yep. Of course, if I come across you while you're attacking someone, or if I find you standing over a dead body, or if you're obviously doing something else I consider naughty, all bets are off. I'll just stake you, brush my clothes off, and go get a milkshake." Dawn slapped a hand down on the counter, making everyone jump. "Also, if you use one of these as cover to get from your den to a place you're working evil, I'll do the same thing. Do not take advantage of my kind and generous nature."

She took a deep breath. "But if you're just wandering around, or, I don't know, in your crypt watching _Wheel of Fortune_ or something, I won't hassle you as long as you flash that card. Oh, and one more thing. I take the card back after you flash it. One use only. You want me to leave you alone, keep your nose clean and keep feeding me intel."

Dawn looked at everyone in the bar in turn. "Everybody got that?" Nods all around. "Good. Now, like I said, spread the word. I'll be back in here on an irregular basis just to make sure that everyone is aware of this pilot program." She headed out, stopping at the door to toss a "Don't have too much fun now" over her shoulder.

She was almost to her car when she heard the voice. "Slayer."

She turned. It was one of the vampires. Not the big guy, but one of the squirrelly ones. "What."

The vampire approached slowly. "Here's what I think. I think you're not the Slayer from LA. I think you're the new one. I think you're the one the Master's put a price out for. And I think I'm going to cash in on that."

"Is that what you think?" Dawn shoved her keys back in her pocket.

"Oh yeah."

"And would that be the Aurelian master, Heinrich Nest?"

The vampire stopped, confused. "I dunno. Everyone just calls him the Master."

"Right." Dawn shrugged her shoulders, loosening them up. "Come on then."

The vampire rushed her. Dawn caught his opening kick and threw him backward. She wanted no part of a fight next to her new car. He growled and threw a combination of punches. Dawn stayed strictly block-block-block-duck-block until she gauged his timing, and then counter-attacked. It was over in seconds.

On her way home, she dialed up Giles.

"Mister Giles, this is Dawn. No, it went okay. Quiet though, I only dusted one vampire. Found out something interesting. Apparently the head vampire in Sunnydale has put a price on my head."

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in association with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television. _The Mask _is owned by New Line Cinema in association with Dark Horse Entertainment. _Jerry Maguire_ is owned by Tri-Star Pictures in conjunction with Gracie Pictures. _Shrek_ is owned by DreamWorks Animation and DreamWorks SKG. All I own is the idea and the words.


	6. Coming Clean

**Coming Clean**

**XxxxxxX**

_Children waiting for the day they feel good_

_Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!_

_And I feel the way that every child should._

_Sit and listen. Sit and listen._

_Went to school and I was very nervous._

_No one knew me. No one knew me._

_Hello, teacher. Tell me, what's my lesson?_

_Look right through me. Look right through me._

– _**Tears For Fears, **"Mad World"_

**XxxxxxX**

"Hope you don't mind, but we're going to pick up Xander, Willow, and Jesse on the way in." Dawn waited for Buffy to finish buckling herself in before starting the drive toward the High School.

"That's fine." Buffy waved at her mom and little sister, who were climbing into Joyce's SUV. "Again, I cannot thank you enough for the ride. I can't imagine the pep talk that mom would have given me. She probably would have reminded me to be careful and not burn down any buildings."

"What are big sisters for, right?" Dawn shot Buffy a grin. She could feel Buffy roll her eyes at her.

"Right. You're, what, two months older than I am now? Three?"

"Hey," Dawn laughed. "I'll have you know that three months and three days is an important and notable span of time."

"Sure. I thought we were officially going to be cousins? Which means you're not my big sister, you're my, uh, big cousin." Buffy was frowning. "That sounded more impressive in my head."

"Most things do." Dawn signaled, then turned onto Bearer Avenue. Willow was closest, so... "Hey, can I ask you a weird question?"

"Depends on what you mean by weird." Buffy adjusted the strap of her seat belt.

"Did, uh, did you have a dream last night? You know, a Slayer dream? A real one, I mean?" Dawn glanced at Buffy, then looked away.

"What, did you have one too?" Buffy asked. "What was yours? And what do you mean a real one?"

"I've sort of been using Slayer dreams as a cover to slip the Watchers info about the future."

"You know, you should tell them you're from the future. It would make it much easier to talk around them. Not to mention the entire 'don't have to lie' thing." Buffy started tapping her fingers on her legs. to the music on the radio.

"I know. I mean, I don't know. I want to, but I'm scared." Dawn shrugged again. "I'll think about it." They were quiet again.

"So, the dream?"

"Yeah, well, there was this pool of blood, and a cave, and all kinds of candles everywhere. I think there was, like, a graveyard at sunset, and a statue of Kali..."

"Kali?" Buffy asked, interrupting.

"Hindu goddess. Lots of arms, in a dancer's pose."

"Oh yeah. What else?"

"Well, there was this old guy with a messed up face dressed in leather. I think he was a very old vampire." Dawn paused, thought about it, then continued. "Lots of belts on his outfit, and a face that just screamed 'I can turn into a bat' or something. And I kept seeing this cross, and a whole load of vampires all coming at me."

"Wow. Yeah, I had that very same dream." Buffy was staring now. "Talk about freaky."

"What do you think it means?"

"Dunno. We'll have to ask Giles when we get to the school." Buffy stared out the window for a while before continuing. "You and mom were all chatty while you waited for me to come down. Anything important?"

"Well," Dawn had known this would come up, but it wasn't a pleasant subject. "She told me that Dawn figured out that, toward the end right before I came back, Mom wasn't there. That she died. And she asked me what happened. So I told her."

"Oh." That had sobered Buffy right up. "She said something about scheduling a doctor's appointment for later in the week. Is she gonna get sick?"

Dawn looked at her sideways before returning her eyes to the road. "Yeah. Cancer. A brain tumor. Mom was having headaches for years before, but no one thought about it. Then she sort of had a weird night where she started babbling. Took her to the doctor and found out she had this tumor in her brain. It was pretty big by then."

"So it killed her?"

"Um, officially it was complications of surgery. An aneurysm." Dawn sighed. "One of those weird things that happen when they poke around in your brain. But yeah, The fact that no one caught it made it hard to remove it or treat it, so... "

"How, um. I mean, how long do we..."

"Years. Like four years or something. But I told Mom and she's going to get checked out, because better safe than sorry."

"What happened to you?" Buffy asked.

"Huh? I was fine. Depressed afterward, but okay. It still hurts, but having her alive is a good thing now." Dawn said.

"No, I mean, you then. The you of the…" Buffy stopped, then restarted. "You know what, this is hard. What happened to you after Mom died?"

"What do you mean? I went to school. Helped out as much as I could with the Slaying. You know." Dawn shrugged.

"You didn't go live with Dad?"

"The sperm donor, you mean? Hank? He might be my father but he's not my dad. And I got doubts about the father thing." Dawn shook her head. "He signed all parental rights over to you." At Buffy's shocked look, she added, "Don't worry, Buffy. You did the best you could; it wasn't always rainbows and puppies but we had a good time for the most part."

"You got doubts about Hank being our dad?"

"No, I'm sure he's your dad. I just don't think he's my dad. Or, you know, little Dawn's." Dawn shook her head. "It's complicated. Just something me and Willow and Tara talked about once." Dawn hadn't told Buffy about the Key, or about just how Dawn – both Dawns – came to be.

"You think Mom had an affair?"

"No, Buffy." Dawn sighed. "Like I said, complicated. I'll tell you, but not right now." A silence descended upon the car. Dawn was suddenly sorry the topic of just who her father was came up. Trust Buffy to find a way to change the subject and lighten the mood.

"Did I tell you what Butt Pain came up with this morning?" Buffy asked with a smile.

"Who's Butt – wait, isn't that what you used to call – BUFFY! You just called me Butt Pain!"

"No, I called _her_ Butt Pain. You're my cool older cousin, remember?" That caused both girls to laugh.

"Okay, so what did Mini-Me do?"

"Mini-Me? Okay, that's odd yet appropriate. And funny." Buffy laughed. "Mini-Me. I'm going to have to remember that one." Dawn started to say something about Austin Powers movies, but then it occurred to her that maybe the one with Mini-Me hadn't come out yet. "Anyway, _Butt Pain_announced to me and Mom that since there were two of you now, she wanted to be called Marie from now on instead of Dawn, so she could – get this – 'be her own person'."

"She did?" Dawn chuckled at the thought. "Well, you have to admit she has a point. Is Mom going for it?"

"I don't know. Dawn told Mom that she was going to ask the teachers at her school to call her Marie, and any friends she makes. She figured it would be easier to get new folks to call her by her middle name than the people who already knew her."

"I'm surprised Mom didn't freak."

"I think Mom said something about Dawn finding out who you were and your real identity or whatever. Not being in your shadow and all." Buffy shrugged. "I figure it was just Butt Pain being Butt Pain."

"I dunno." Dawn thought about it. "Makes sense. I don't know how much sense, but there's a logic to it. Somewhere."

"I guess. Think it could be a play for attention?"

"Mini-Me, making a play for more attention? Of course it could be." Dawn remembered how insufferable she could be when she was younger.

"Hey, I had a question about the future..." Buffy began.

"Well, ask it quick, we're almost to Willow's house." Dawn made the last turn onto Willow's street.

"So, uh, I noticed that you and Xander are thick as thieves. He was, like, staying at your house the other night. What's going on there?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been here for, what, four days? Five maybe? And you're all over him." Buffy's voice had that leading quality to it.

"And? What are you getting at?"

"Were you two involved, back then? Ahead? In the future?" Buffy grinned at Dawn.

"Oh! Not really. I mean." Dawn blushed to her toes. "Well, there was this once. I, uh, sort of lost my virginity to him, and there could have been a possibility for more, but he regretted it after it happened. Said he felt like he was taking advantage of me." Dawn sighed. "And then... you know. The _thing_ happened that caused me to come back here."

"You're not a virgin?" Buffy seemed scandalized by the thought. Dawn knew that Buffy wasn't a complete sexual innocent. She had clear memories of walking in on Buffy and Oliver Pike one day. Buffy had been nude from the waist up. But she also knew that Buffy hadn't gone all the way with anyone.

"Actually – this is going to sound weird, but I think I am, but I'm not. I mean, I have memories of having sex, but I think when I came back I, uh, I mean physically, I think it got, uh. Crap. 'Fixed' isn't the right word, but do you get what I mean? And repaired is so damned clinical."

Buffy nodded but didn't comment. "You really love him, though. Xander, I mean. You do, don't you? I can see it in your eyes."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I have for, you know, but other than the one time, he was always with someone else, or else he was convinced I was his little sister, or, you know, he was afraid of pissing you off.

"And now you're in the past..." Buffy prompted.

"And now I'm in the past. I'm taking advantage of the situation, yeah." Dawn blushed again.

Buffy nodded and shrugged. "Well, that's okay. I mean, if you liked him and – oh wait. He's my age. So he'd be five or six years older than you!" Buffy was now openly chuckling. "You sly minx! You're using the time travel thing to steal Xander away from someone else, aren't you?"

"Sort of," Dawn said. She wouldn't look at Buffy.

"Hey, as long as it isn't me, we're cool." Buffy's smile dimmed abruptly. "It's not me, is it? You wouldn't steal my future boyfriend from me before he had a chance to be my boyfriend, would he?"

"Xander? No, you and he weren't ever. There was this one time you threw yourself at him, but it was a love spell." At Buffy's look, Dawn elaborated. "It was making every woman in town fall in love with him. I actually got into a screaming match with Mom over which one of us loved him more. It was silly and horrible. And you walked up to him wearing nothing but that black jacket you have, the one with the belt and the big buttons? And I mean nothing underneath it at all. He, uh, he actually turned you down even though you were basically naked and wanted to have sex with him. But that was the closest you two ever came."

"Wow." Buffy stared at the houses going by, then asked, "So tell me, do I end up with me Prince Charming and live happily ever after?"

"Uh, Buffy, you do remember why I came back, right?" Dawn's eyes held concern for her sister.

"Oh yeah, I died. No happily ever after. That sucks. Do I at least get to spend some time with Prince Charming?"

"Not really." Dawn looked glum. "I'm sorry, Buffy. Your first boyfriend in Sunnydale turned evil and tried to kill you. A couple of other guys in High School, but they weren't able to keep up with the Slaying." Dawn bit her lip, thinking. "Hey, there was this guy you really liked who turned out to only be using you for sex. Another guy was military, I think he was a marine. You told him about being Slayer and he was cool with it for a while, but then had this problem about you being stronger than him. And then there was, uh, Spi – this other guy, and he sort of abused you and tried to rape you."

"Raped me? One of my boyfriends raped me?"

"No, but he tried to. I never really forgave him for that, though you did."

"Uh huh. Want to give me some names?"

"Nope. But I'll try and steer you away from the really bad ones, okay?" Dawn thought about it for a moment, then corrected herself. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you about Parker Abrams. He's the one who schmoozed you up, convinced you to hop into bed with him, got his hand in your cookie jar, and then dropped you like you were plague-ridden the next morning. Feel free to kick his ass if you ever meet him."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "I notice you're not telling me the name of the rapist." When Dawn remained silent, Buffy sighed. "What, did I turn into a skanky ho or something?"

"No, you're not a skanky ho. You only actually had sex with like one or two of them, I think. Maybe three. And even then you're more of a serial monogamist." Dawn was again biting her lip. "Actually pretty faithful to them. They were just all wrong for you. The closest you came to meeting someone that was really compatible with you was – oh!" Dawn stopped talking abruptly. She knew Buffy would tell that something was wrong.

Buffy's eyes narrowed as Dawn's voice trailed away. "What? What aren't you saying?"

"Nothing. It's nothing."

"Tell me, Dawn. What aren't you saying? Something about the person I was most compatible with."

Dawn pulled up in front of Willow's, threw the car into park, and honked. "It's not important. We're going to have to stop talking about the future anyway, because Willow's coming."

"No, Dawn, you don't get to drop news that I my chance with someone who was really compatible and not tell me details!"

"Buffy, leave it alone." Buffy kept staring at Dawn, willing the other girl to wear down. "Come on, please. Look, it's just this, this, um... well, this person sort of came out of left field for you. They – they were different from anyone else you have ever dated, and I mean all the way back to junior high. And the two of you really did only have one real date,. Otherwise you just sort of hung out together. Alone. But you both were all over each other about it. It was a serious mutual attraction." Dawn bit her lip again. "I forgot about, uh, them when I was counting your boyfriends."

Dawn pulled into the driveway of Willow's house, threw it into park, and honked the horn.

"Were they hot?"

Dawn looked at Buffy and shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose. Totally not my type, but yeah, they were hot."

"That sounds cool. I think I could handle being with a guy who I was totally hot for." Buffy grinned at Dawn, then turned to watch Willow run out toward the car.

"I, uh, didn't actually say it was a guy, Buffy." The moment it left her mouth, Dawn wished she'd just kept it shut. Dawn's eyes grew huge. She looked at Buffy, expecting the explosion just about...

"_What?_" Buffy yelled just as Willow climbed into the backseat. "What are you talking about, didn't say it was a guy? Are you saying it was a girl?"

"What was a girl?" Willow asked.

"Um... well... that's hard to explain, Willow." Dawn sputtered. "But, um. Yeah, Buffy, it was a girl."

"I went out with a girl? I dated another girl? I was compatible with another girl?" Buffy's jaw dropped.

"Wait, you dated a girl and you didn't know she was a girl?" Willow wondered. She was looking from Dawn to Buffy, obviously confused. "How does that work?"

"It was only a single date! But after you, you know... you told me you had a great time, and thought she was really fun, and sexy, and that you liked her, and if things hadn't gone bad for you two, you might have actually wanted to, you know, have a thing with her. But things got ugly, and it just didn't work out. But yeah. I think she might have been a little bit in love with you, and you certainly weren't shy about hanging out with her." Dawn looked Buffy up and down. "And come on, Buffy... what about that girl Kimberly back at Hemery, huh? You told me what you guys did at that one party."

"Oh my God, I cannot believe I told you about that!" Buffy jerked back away from Dawn. "That was nothing... it was... it was a phase! We just... we didn't even really have... a game! It was a game! We were playing Seven Minutes in Heaven, and we didn't know it was each other until we were already into it, and besides, it doesn't count."

"Tongue kisses count, Buff." Dawn smirked. It caused Buffy to settle.

"You kissed another girl and used tongue?" Willow was wide-eyed now. She was also clearly getting more and more frustrated at being ignored.

"You said me and this girl didn't work out. That it got ugly. What happened?" Buffy asked. Behind them, Willow leaned forward, confused but interested.

"There was an accident and someone got badly hurt. You blamed her for it when it was just as much your fault and you fought and it broke the two of you up. Only one date and it was over." Dawn sighed. "You were sort of freaking out about it then, too."

"Yeah, well, I just found out I'm gay in the future. Of course I'm freaking out. How would you feel?" Buffy shot back.

"Wait, you just said that you're gay in the future? Buffy, how does that make sense?" Willow asked again. "What's going on here? Come on, guys. Don't leave me in suspense. Buffy, are you gay? Really? Because that's totally all right with me, I don't care. And Dawn obviously doesn't care. I don't think Xander will care either, though Jesse might freak out for like ten minutes or something, mostly because he thinks your hot and said he might try and ask you out and if you're gay then that's a no to dating him, but then he'd be totally okay with it once he settled down."

Dawn said, "Actually Buffy it was more of an 'If it's you, it's okay' situation than you actually being _gay_ gay. You had like six boyfriends she wasn't ever officially your girlfriend, you know? You just went out the once, and you hung out a lot and you just kept making eyes at each other, that's all. I mean, she might have been on the way to one, you know, but..."

Buffy was quiet. Dawn was also quiet. In the back seat, Willow was still muttering to herself about nobody telling her anything. Dawn put her hand on the gearshift of the car, but didn't start backing out of the driveway.

"Dawn, it's not fair to just drop something like that on a person." Buffy smirked at her. "You just told me I'm actually, like, into girls. I don't have any problem with gay people, but for crying out loud, I never thought I'd be talking about _me_... I don't have a problem with it, but usually a person makes that sort of breakthrough on their own, you know? I'm freaked, yeah, but it's a lot to take in."

"Now I'm confused. Are these people – this girl and all those guys – you dated in the past or are going to be dating in the future? You're talking about them in future tense, though, like it's people you haven't met yet. What does that mean? How can Dawn know about who you're going to date in the future?" Willow sat back, maneuvering herself to sit in the middle of the seat and tugging on her own seat belt. "So, whose going to tell me what's going on?"

"Uh, it's nothing, really Willow. We were just discussing, um relationships, that's all. You know, Buffy's relationships."

Willow arched an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, I got that part. It was the future tense language you were using that was throwing me. It sounds like you're saying that Buffy's going to have a lesbian affair in the future."

"I'm not a – " Buffy began to protest.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that! it's perfectly okay to be gay!" Willow patted Buffy on the shoulder, obviously willing to support her friend in whatever lifestyle choices she wished to make.

"Yeah, and if someone would know about how okay it was to be gay, it would be Willow, right?"

The silence slammed into the car's interior like a safe dropped from an eighth floor window.

"Oh fuck." Dawn leaned forward and began beating her forehead into the steering wheel. Not hard, just hard enough to feel. She didn't have to look to know that Buffy's eyes were on her. Worse, she could feel Willow's eyes on her as well. "I really need to learn to glue my damned mouth shut."

From behind her, Willow cleared her throat. "Dawn -" The girl's voice was high pitched and squeaky. Willow cleared her throat again. "Are you trying to... Why would you, uh... I mean..."

Dawn met Buffy's eyes. Her sister looked at her for a moment, then jerked her head to the side, in Willow's direction. Buffy's mouth quirked the question silently, _You mean she really is..._

Dawn gave a barely hidden nod and a shrug. _Yeah, she is._

Buffy's eyes widened, and she quirked another question. _Was she the one...?_

Dawn shook her head, just enough for it to be noticed. _No, it was someone else._

Buffy sighed, clearly relieved. Buffy took in Willow, who was still stewing in the back seat. "You sort of have to tell them now."

Dawn looked Buffy in the eye and shook her head.

Buffy nodded in return and tilted her head toward Willow.

Dawn glared back.

"Look, as exciting as this utterly silent conversation is, do you mind actually letting the person in the backseat you just said was gay know what's going on?"

Buffy just smirked. "They deserve to know, Dawn. It's going to eat Willow up wondering. And you deserve to live without having to constantly keep things from your friends. Especially your boyfriend, don't you think?" Buffy laid a hand on Dawns. "Look, I'll be there and help you out, too, since I know already."

"Shit." Dawn said, finally. She looked at Willow in the rear-view mirror, then sighed. Dawn shifted in her seat so she was looking directly at Willow. "Look, Willow. Shit. How do I even begin. Okay, look. Willow, I know that I need to explain what I just said, but it's not going to be easy and you're going to hate me more than you already do, okay? So do you think you can sit on your curiosity until lunch? I mean, I need some time to think about this. I don't – Buffy's right, I shouldn't be hiding things from you, but at the same time, I don't know if I can just spill everything out on you. I don't want to lose you guys as friends, especially not Xander. And, it's just... I want to pretend we're going to still be friends for a little while, at least."

"Sure, Dawn." Willow said. Her voice had a forced cheerfulness about it that made it clear that there was a storm brewing under Willow's quiet facade. "I didn't mean to upset you. And, and I'm sure that whatever you have to say, we'll still be friends. I'm not that shallow a person. It's just... no, you know what? I'm not going to pry."

"See? it's all good." Buffy gave Dawn's shoulder a squeeze and mouthed a quick, "We'll get you through it." At Dawn's weak smile, she added, "Remember, they can't kill you. And even if they can kill you, they're not allowed to cook you and eat you afterward."

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn leaned on the wall, just outside the library, and listened to the conversation. She'd engineered it intentionally so that she was the last person to get there, for this specific purpose. Dawn wanted to hear what her friends' speculation would be before she had to go in there and reveal everything. And as much as she hated it, she realized that Buffy was right. She was going to have to go in there and reveal everything. At the very least, she was going to have to explain to Willow about the gay thing.

"Seriously, though, how bad could it be? We haven't known her for long, but she's always been pretty straight with us. Told us about the vampires, right?" Jesse's voice. "She wants us safe from the monsters. So what if she's been keeping things private. They're her things, right?"

"Yeah, but she was talking about us. Some of her things are about us." Willow's voice. "She was talking to Buffy about Buffy things, and then she said a Willow thing and it didn't make any sense."

"Yeah, but Will, I'm sure it wasn't a mean Willow thing, right? She wasn't being hurtful or anything?" Xander's voice.

"No, it wasn't hurtful really. Just... really weird. I mean, it freaked me out a little."

"So, what, you want to stop hanging out with her or something?" Xander again.

"No, but I'd like to know what's going on." Willow.

"I'm sure that Miss Summers has her reasons for keeping things from you, Miss Rosenberg. As Mister McNally said, it is her, er, 'things', as it were. And everyone has their personal secrets."

Dawn sighed. Willow was always the problem when it came to this. Once she got an idea in her head, she never let it go, and once she was convinced she was right, she _really_ wouldn't let it go. And Dawn had inadvertently dropped a mystery that involved Willow herself right into Willow's lap.

"Hey, whatcha doin' stranger?" Dawn looked up to see Buffy approaching.

"Oh, you know, eavesdropping on our friends because I want to know what they think of me before I ruin our friendship." Dawn's tone belied the casual words. "The usual. So, how was your morning?"

"Oh, well, let me regale you." Buffy held up a hand and started counting off on her fingers. "I got a really weird speech from Principal Flutie that I'm still not sure what he meant by. I got glared at by this short ugly dude who I think was the Vice Principal. Ran into Xander, and he was very helpful. I met this girl Cordelia in history class who seemed pretty cool at first until she found out I was already friends with Willow, and then she turned into a complete bitch."

Dawn giggled at that. "I think we have gym together later, if that's any consolation."

"It totally is. But now, it's time. Come on, let's go face the music." Buffy hooked one of Dawn's arms with her own and dragged the taller girl into the library. The assembled group all looked up when they came in. Xander smiled huge for Dawn, Jesse smiled huge for Buffy, and Willow looked really, really worried. "Hey, everybody! Look what I found out in the hall!"

"So, Dawn, Willow says you've got some earth-shattering confession to make to us that will fundamentally change the basic nature of the universe!" Xander joked. Dawn wished he hadn't, because this might very well be the last joke he told to her, and it wasn't all that good.

"Yeah, something like that." She freed herself from Buffy's grasp and hugged him. "I'll understand if you don't want to be near me for a while after I tell everyone. Just don't hate me, okay?"

"That won't happen." Xander returned Dawn's hug. "Promise." He followed Dawn to the table and took a seat next to her, holding her hand the entire time. Dawn waited until everyone was seated before beginning. Buffy sat between Giles and Willow, and Jesse took Willow's far side.

"Miss Summers, Dawn, I suppose you have the floor." Giles was obviously curious, but was also obviously giving Dawn space to make her own way to the subject."

"Right. Well. Um. I'm not sure how to start with this. It's – you're probably going to think I'm crazy and all, but, uh, it's all true I promise." Dawn shook her head and stared again, figuring it would be easier to focus on a specific person. "Willow, you, uh, remember the other day? You know how we were helping Buffy's Mom unpack and you said that it was weird how much I looked like Buffy's little sister what with being her cousin and all?"

"Uh-huh." Willow nodded. Before Dawn could say another word, the red-head's eyes went way, way wide. "Holey moley! I get it! You're from the future! You're a time traveler, aren't you? You don't just look like Dawn, you are Dawn! You're like, Dawn plus five years! Oh wow, it all makes so much sense now! Everything, I mean! You knowing about the Watchers when they didn't know you, you knowing who Buffy was before she got here! Your, uh... your closeness with Xander! The conversation with Buffy about her boyfriends! It's because you've already lived it!"

Dawn goggled.

"How did you figure that out?" Buffy was almost shrieking.

"Well, uh, you started talking about you looking like Buffy's sister, and you were telling her this morning about things that hadn't happened yet, and you've told Dr. Giles and Dr. Lamontagne about things that were going to happen in the future and it all sort of added up. Also, you'd only met Xander and you knew how he wasn't really interested in me like that, and knew he would be interested in you." Willow took a quick breath. "I'm smart, guys. I can figure things out when I'm presented with evidence, you know."

"Yeah, but time travel?" Jesse said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Admittedly, I probably wouldn't have thought of time travel until I found out about vampires, but still, as a hypothesis, it fits all the evidence, right? So, are you?" Willow looked at Dawn expectantly.

Dawn stared back for a moment, then just nodded. She was too busy staring at Xander's face, which was frozen in shock, to say anything just now.

"Wow." Willow stared at Dawn. "So, do you have a time machine or was it a one time thing? Why did you come back? Are you here to put right what once when wrong, or to save someone, or did you do it to change history. I guess that's all changing history, but you know what I mean. Why did you come back? And really, you're only from eight years in the future? How did we get time travel technology in only eight years?"

"No time machine, one time thing, for vengeance, yes really, yes, and it was magic." Dawn replied. Xander still hadn't said anything. He was still just staring at her. "I made a deal with a vengeance demon and made a wish, and abra cadabra, here I am."

"Okay, you're going to need to go into a little more detail than that." Willow said. "I mean, when you say vengeance..."

"They are a group of vastly powerful entities who travel the earth, delivering vengeance on wrong-doers and miscreants through the power of a wish. Usually these wishes are subver -"

"Dawn, had feelings for me even before you came back, didn't you?" Xander asked, just loud enough to be heard. Giles' lecture about vengeance demons trailed to a stop.

"Yeah." Dawn said simply.

"Did I return them?"

Dawn shrugged. "You loved me. For years, though you weren't in love with me, like I was. You said I was too young for you. Like I was your little sister. And then right before I came back things were beginning to look like they might change."

Xander didn't say anything, and everyone else stayed quiet too. Finally, he asked, "Something terrible happened, right? That's why you came back."

"What?" Jesse asked. "What do you mean, terrible."

"I'm getting the idea," Xander still hadn't let go of her hand. "That using a wish from a vengeance demon isn't something that happens every day and is kind of a big thing. Right, Giles?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely. As I was saying, usually the wish in question is subverted in such a way so as to fulfill it in the worst possible fashion wile sticking to the exact wording of the wish."

"Right. So if Dawn risked that sort of thing to come back here, I'm thinking something terrible happened. She's back here doing a Sam Beckett to stop it." Dawn listened to Xander take a deep, deep breath and release it slowly.

"Aw, crap, yeah, I get it. Oh man..." Jesse sat back, a hand on his forehead. Buffy was nodding, not saying anything. She already knew the score. Willow was beginning to look teary.

"Okay," Dawn sighed. "Just, let me get through this first and I'll answer questions. Get something to write stuff down with, so you don't forget anything. It's bad, and I don't want to do this multiple times." She shook her head, then added, "If I knew I was going to do this I'd have brought Gray's Sports Almanac."

"You've got a book that tells facts about the future?" Trust Willow to get the reference immediately.

"Yeah. At home." Dawn chuckled, but it wasn't a happy sound. "I didn't think I'd need it. It's got lists of upcoming problems, companies to invest in, sporting event results, election results, even what looks like the diagrams of a couple of things I could patent if I needed cash."

"You were smart enough to ask for such a thing in your wish, I take it?" Giles was rubbing his glasses. The familiar action almost made Dawn smile.

"We worked on the wish for like, eighteen hours. We wanted to make it tamper proof."

"We?" Willow asked. "Who's we?"

"You wrote most of it, Willow. The rest of it was mostly Anya." At their blank looks, Dawn added, "Anya was a woman who owned the local magic shop. She wasn't the nicest person all the time, but she was... she was good. A good person. We didn't always get along, but in the end she, uh, she sacrificed herself to make sure I made it back okay." Dawn wiped tears from her eyes.

"And me? Future me? Did I...?" Willow's eyes were tear-filled also.

"Yeah, you did to."

Willow just nodded.

Buffy reached over and put a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "Dawnie, just tell them what happened."

"Okay. Like I said, just let me get through this once." Dawn gathered herself, smiling at Xander when he gave her hand a squeeze. She was relieved he wasn't going to abandon her. "So, about a week before I came back, Buffy, Giles, Xander, and a couple of other guys led a team of Slayers into the Hellmouth to stop a Big Bad from opening it wide up and releasing an army of super-vampires on the world. Willow, Anya, and I stayed topside, guarding the retreat in case we needed to get out of there quick. But it didn't matter. No one got out of the Hellmouth alive. We knew something had gone wrong when we saw this horde of these super-vampires appear. The couldn't have got that far if they hadn't killed everyone who went down into the hole."

"Anyway," Dawn took a deep breath. "They came up through the basement of the High School, but couldn't leave because it was still daytime. Willow and Anya and I were in a school bus, waiting for you, but when we saw all the monsters, we knew you weren't coming. Everyone who went into the Hellmouth died. Buffy, Faith, the new Slayers and... uh... this other, uh, guy who was helping us... everyone they left to guard the entrance died, too. That was Xander, and Robin, and Andrew, and even you, Giles. All of you. Will, you and I and Anya fled to Los Angeles – we had friends there who were fighting demons and stuff in LA – but the army still got out of the Hellmouth. And the opening of this Hellmouth caused the ones in Cleveland and Louisiana to open. All of them opened, all over the world. And super-vampires poured out of all of them. The human race never had a chance. So Willow had this idea involving getting the Lord of the vengeance demons to give me a wish. And I used it. And here I am."

"You came back to save the world. That's very noble." Giles said.

"No. You don't understand, I didn't come back to save the world. I came back to save my family." Dawn wiped at her tears again. "You guys. All of you. The Scoobies. Even the ones you guys don't know about yet, like Andrew, or Robin. I came back to make sure you didn't die and leave me alone again. It's not noble, it's selfish."

"I'm sorry, but it's still very noble." Giles places his glasses back on his nose. "Miss Rosenberg, I take it you were taking notes?"

"Yeah, Giles. I got it. I wrote down some questions, if nobody minds?"

"I'd hazard to guess that we probably all have questions for Dawn. Miss Summers, you really should have informed either myself or your own Watcher of this immediately. We have to inform the Council in order to -"

"_NO!"_ Dawn shouted. She'd gone from depressed to angry in a heartbeat. "No! I swear to God and Sonny Jesus, Giles, if you tell the Council about this first I'll kick your ass between your ears and then I'll fade into the mist and take Buffy and Dawn and Mom with me!"

"Dawn!" Buffy yelled. The others were just as loud in their objections. But not Giles. He was still calm.

"Miss Summers, I assure you, the Council..."

"The Watcher's Council can't be trusted, Giles."

"Nonsense, Miss Summers. I assure you that -"

"No, Giles." Dawn glared at him. "The first time I went through all this, the Council betrayed Buffy twice that I remember, tried to kill Faith because it was too inconvenient to help her, kept secrets from us when we needed information, threatened to deport you when you took Buffy's side against them, and not once actually helped us when we needed help. They didn't lift a finger to help when we almost lost the house after mom died!"

Dawn stopped, shocked at her own words. No one else said anything. Xander leaned in and pulled Dawn to him, letting her curl into his chest.

"Giles." There was a surprising hardness to Xander's voice, a quality that Dawn recognized from the last years of the man's life. It was a quality that none of the other people in the room had ever heard. "No informing the Council. If Dawn's right, and I have no reason to mistrust her, they'll snatch her off the street, lock her in a room, and drug her up to the eyeballs until they squeezed the last bit of future information out of her."

"No Council, Giles. I'll quit if you do." Buffy's voice was almost as hard as Xanders. "Dawn and I will pack Mom and Little Dawn up and you and the Council will never see us again."

Dawn watched as Giles looked from Buffy to Xander to Willow, then to Jesse and Dawn. "Very well. Against my better judgment, we'll keep it quiet." He touched his brow for a moment, as if suppressing a headache. "You do realize we will have to tell Lydia, yes?"

"I know." Dawn said. It was muffled, her face still pressed to Xander's chest, but everyone heard.

"Dawn, do you need some water or something? I think I have a juice box in my bag. You can have it if you want." Willow dug into her backpack and pulled a box of apple juice. She pushed it across the table toward Dawn. Dawn stared at it for a bit, then took it in her hand. She just held it, though, as if it were a protective talisman.

"Thank you."

"Can... can I ask you some questions?" Willow picked up her pad.

Dawn nodded. "Sure. I know you have a lot of questions." She coughed into a fist. "I think, um, I mean... there's going to be some things I don't want to tell you. And there's some thing I think you're going to want to ask about that you don't want to know about."

"Oh, okay. I guess that's fine." Willow looked to everyone else, who all nodded. Jesse was the exception.

"Why wouldn't you want to tell us everything?" he asked.

"The butterfly effect." Willow answered for Dawn. "Small changes over time mean big changes."

"Say what now?" Jesse was obviously puzzled. "Can you translate that away from Spock-language?" That caused a chuckle from everyone. Giles just rolled his eyes.

"Sure, Jesse. Uh, say that Dawn tells you that just after graduation, you and Cordelia Chase fall in love and have a couple of kids. And then, because you know this is supposed to happen, you do something that keeps it from ever happening. You'll spend the rest of your life wondering what went wrong because you were _supposed_ to marry Cordelia and didn't."

Jesse nodded, finally getting it. "Oh. So, like, Doc Brown is right. It's dangerous to know too much about our own future."

"Right." Willow turned her attention back to Dawn. "So, you up for some questions?"

"Yeah."

"Cool." Willow looked around. "Anyone want to start?"

"Yes." Giles stood and paced before coming back to the table. "What can you tell us about immediate upcoming threats? Enemies we should be aware of. Things like that?" Trust Giles to keep on point.

"Well, I don't actually know very much about what's going on right now. I mean, when all this was going on the first time, I didn't know about vampires and stuff. I found out about it later on, and you guys never told me a lot of details. I know that this was when you were fighting the Master a lot, and the Whirlwind. You know, the entire Line of Aurelius thing. I think those guys were the Big Bads right around now."

"The Whirlwind?" Jesse asked. "Like a tornado?"

"The Whirlwind were four vampires: Darla, Angelus, Drusilla the Mad, and William the Bloody." Giles strode into his office, still talking. When he returned, he had an open book in his hands. "They were all from a line of vampires known as the Line of Aurelius. For close to three hundred years they caused such destruction and mayhem across the face of Europe that they were called the Whirlwind."

The teenagers watched him as he continued to read from the book. They looked at him curiously, as he had stopped reading out loud.

"Uh, Giles?"

"Hmm? Oh yes." He closed the book and adjusted his glasses. "Facing the Line of Aurelius will be quite the challenge, but I believe if you both work together, you shall triumph over them." He looked to Dawn. "Were there any other immediate threats?"

"Uh, yeah. A couple. Um, the Mayor of Sunnydale is an evil demon-worshiping immortal sorcerer who intends on turning into a giant snake and eating everyone in town as a sacrifice to himself. There's a mad scientist under UC Sunnydale making a Frankenstein demon out of spare parts, and a Hellgod is going to show up and want to kill Little Dawn. Those are the immediate problems."

Everyone sat up and stared at Dawn. "Say what?" Xander's jaw was on the floor. So was Jesse's. Willow looked at Dawn as if she had suddenly burst out into Bantu.

"Could you say all of that again, but perhaps slower this time? You say the current Mayor of Sunnydale..." Giles began.

"... is an immortal sorcerer who wants to sacrifice everyone at the High School and turn into a giant snake demon, yeah. From what we could figure out he's been planning this for a while, like a century or something. And when the stars are right he'll turn into this eighty foot long snake demon and eat everybody."

"When the stars are right?" Giles asked. "You wouldn't happen to know..."

"The day of our senior year graduation, at the end of our Senior year here."

"Two years." Xander muttered. "So we have some time?"

"It's not as immediate as I meant, true, but that's no reason to wait around wasting time." Giles tapped a finger on the library counter. "We'll have to look into what he's doing, find out how to put a stop to it. It'll take some time, but I doubt it will take two years."

"I was actually thinking a high powered rifle with a telescopic scope would do the trick." Dawn said.

"I like the way this girl thinks!" Jesse nodded, a wide grin on his face. "Simple. Elegant. Doesn't involve going toe-to-toe with a big giant snake!"

"We can't just assassinate the Mayor of Sunnydale!" Willow said.

Everyone winced.

"Willow, keep it down. Someone might hear! Ixnay on the assassinationway!" Xander got up and checked the hallway just outside the door. "Someone hears us planning on murdering the Mayor and we'll have cops and FBI down on our head!"

"But -"

"And why the hell can't we just shoot the guy anyway?" Xander continued. "Dawn? What did it take to take the Mayor down the first time?"

"Trapping him in the school and then blowing it up with homemade bombs."

"Right. So, we get a hunting rifle with a big deer scope, we find a nice spot overlooking the Mayor's office, bam bam bam, we're done in an hour and we go get milkshakes? Explain to me how this a bad plan?"

"We can't just murder someone! He's a human being!" Willow leaned down and whispered. It was almost a hiss.

"He's an evil sorcerer. I seem to remember this part about a big giant demon snake." Xander met her gaze. "I can kill a guy whose going to turn into a giant snake and try to eat me and kill a bunch of innocent people."

"Me too." Jesse nodded. "I've got absolutely no qualms about doing that."

"Giles! Buffy! Explain to them why that's a bad plan!"

Buffy started to reply, but stopped when Giles spoke. "It actually might be the only way to stop him without risking the death of innocent bystanders. If he is a powerful enough sorcerer to transform himself into a, a 'giant snake demon' as Dawn says, then there is no way that the authorities could contain him safely. And if he can't be contained, then there's no point in having him arrested. Killing him would be the only way to save lives."

"Right! That's my point!" said Xander. Again, Jesse was nodding along with him. Willow still looked outraged, but Buffy was nodding, if reluctantly.

"They're right, Wills. There's no other way." Buffy sounded resigned. "I'm guessing that a bunch of people died, the first time through?"

Dawn nodded but didn't say anything.

"And I guess some of the people who died were people we knew?"

"Yeah. Most of them." Dawn grinned. It was a small grin, but it was a grin. "I remember Willow told me about how you guys were surprised to find out that most of the school figured things out, that because of Buffy, your senior class – our senior class, now, 'cause here I am – had the lowest death rate in decades. So when the time came to face off against Mayor Wilkins, a bunch of them volunteered to help. And almost everybody who was killed were volunteers who picked up a weapon and fought. Larry Blaisdell, Harmony Kendall, Percy West, Aura White, Natalie Sherman."

"Wait... Larry and Harmony and Aura _fought_? Wow." Jesse shook his head. "Larry's like the biggest bully in the school. I can't imagine him helping anybody but his jock buddies."

"Believe it. Xander spoke at his eulogy. Mom made us go to the public funeral for the victims of the 'gas leak'. That was the cover story. Anyway, Xander talked about how big-hearted and brave he was. It was cool."

"Did he, uh, did he join us?"

"You mean did he become a Scooby? Nope. Wouldn't be a bad idea, though. I can think of a couple of people we should recruit."

"Oh yeah? Like who?" Willow asked.

"Cordelia, definitely." Dawn almost laughed at the look that appeared on Willow and Xander's faces. "No, seriously. She'd be an asset. She's smarter than she pretends to be. Um, Daniel Osborne. Steadfast in a fight." She wondered for a minute about telling them he was a werewolf, or would be a werewolf, but decided not to. "Miss Calendar, the computer teacher. She's a techno-pagan and familiar with magic. Uh, Jonathan Levinson and Andrew Welles. Both of them have some skill at magic, and Andrew's got some technical skills as well. And I know he's a bit of a spaz, but he was my friend." She thought for a moment. "Larry would be a good choice, once he calms down and stops being a jerk."

"Wow, okay." Buffy shrugged. "So how do we go about recruiting people into the club?"

"Jonathan and I hang out sometime, so I can talk to him, and I think I know who Andrew is, but Cordy?" Jesse shook his head. "That's going to be tough. And I don't know who that Daniel guy is."

"Oh, and this is really, really important. We _must_ be on the lookout for Tara MacLay when she gets to Sunnydale. We must! Not only is she a valuable member of the team in the future, but she's important to all of us here. Trust me, she becomes like the soul of the team, like family. But I don't know when she'll be here." Dawn couldn't help it. She caught Willow's eye and said, "You're really going to like her, Willow."

Willow gasped and blushed, catching Dawn's meaning. "I thought you weren't going to tell anything about..."

"No. This is an exception. Because Tara is exceptional."

"So Dawn, anything else?"

"Well," Dawn thought about it. "I remember you guys telling me something about a hyena spirit, and a substitute teacher who turned out to be a bug or something. And there was something involving a talent show but I can't remember what. Uh, on Halloween everybody turns into their costumes – I dressed up as Tinkerbell the first time around and spent the entire time buzzing around Mom's head. Um, something about a snake demon living under a fraternity on campus."

Willow was furiously scribbling. "Snake... demon... fraternity..."

Dawn scrunched her nose up, thinking. "Three assassins from the Order of Taraka show up at one point to kill Buffy, but you guys took care of them all. Some guy named Ethan Rayne that used to be one of Giles friends shows up and causes trouble a couple of times. And vampires attack parent-teacher night! I remember being there for that one. Mom couldn't find a sitter. Oh! And Ted! We've got to find Ted and shut him down! We can probably find him and stop him from ever being a problem in the next couple of days."

"Who's Ted?" Xander took gave her shoulder a squeeze and continued his back rub.

"Serial killer robot. He decides Mom would make the perfect wife and drugs us all with cookies. The weird thing was that until Buffy killed him and told us all he was a robot, I sort of liked him. He was nice. Homicidal, but nice."

"You mentioned..." Giles question trailed off as the door to the library opened and the computer teacher, Jenny Calendar, walked in. "Mister Giles, did you hear... oh... sorry to interrupt. What's going on?"

"We're forming an archaeology club!" Dawn said without a moment's hesitation. It sounded to everyone else like a well-practiced cover story, and who knew, maybe it was. "We're going to study ancient languages, occasionally go out into the hills and look for fossils and historical relics. It'll be cool."

"Oh, that's interesting! Mr. Giles, if you ever need any help, by all means ask." Ms. Calendar smiled at the librarian, who almost instantly began to fluster.

"Was there something I could help you with, Ms. Calendar?"

"Well, perhaps we could talk in your office? Away from the..." She tipped her heard toward the students gathered around the table.

"Ah, yes, by all means, after you." Giles followed the computer teacher into the library office and shut the door behind them.

"So what do you think this is about?" Xander asked.

"No idea. Probably something involving official school business." Willow looked down at her list of questions, then crossed one off. "I mean, Giles is a part of the faculty, after all, and not everything that happens here is about vampires and demons."

"This is true." Xander took the opportunity to lean over Dawn from behind and kiss her cheek.

It was too long before the door opened. "Thank you, Mr. Giles. I'm not sure what's going to happen, or what he expects us to do, ultimately, but Mr. Flutie wanted us to keep an eye out for problems with the students."

"Yes, I understand. Thank you for letting me know." Calendar gave Giles a little wave, then left.

"So, what's going on, Mr. Giles?" Jesse leaned back in his chair, almost to the tipping point.

"Take your feet off the table, Mr. McNally. Buffy, Dawn, a body was discovered in the girl's locker room, shoved into one of the lockers. Ms. Calendar didn't have any details, but according to what she did tell me, the body was male, was amazingly pale, and had suffered damage to the neck."

Buffy and Dawn exchanged glances and nodded. "We're on it." Buffy said. "Come on, Dawn. Let's go see what we can find out. It was as much as a formal declaration that the meeting was adjourned. The rest of the group, barring Giles, waited a few minutes and then filtered out of the library in ones and twos.

**XxxxxxX**

Sneaking into the locker room had been child's play. The police had yet to arrive, and all Principal Flutie had done was lock both doors. A simple yank and Dawn and Buffy were inside.

"Yep, he's dead all right." Buffy said, kneeling beside the corpse. "Vampire bite."

Dawn checked his mouth. She couldn't see anything, so she leaned down and sniffed at it. "No blood. He's not going to turn. I'm guessing he was someone's dinner and they thought leaving him would be funny. Aura probably just on the creep-out lottery."

"Well, we're not going to learn anything more. I mean, too bad for the guy, but..."

"Yeah. Let's get out of here before the cops come." Dawn said. Buffy nodded, and the two snuck out of the locker room as easily as they entered.

**XxxxxxX**

Dawn watched, holding on to her amusement, as Buffy argued with herself about clothing. Her sister was standing in front of a full-length mirror, with two outfits in her hand. One was a slinky black dress, the other a floral-print sundress. Little Dawn was sitting, legs bent beneath her, on Buffy's bed, watching the show. Next to the younger girl was a pile of already discarded outfits.

"Hi! I'm an enormous slut!" Buffy said, holding the black dress in front of her. Without pausing, she switched to the sundress. "Hello, would you like to buy a copy of the Watchtower?" Buffy tossed both dresses onto the growing pile. "I used to be so good at this..."

"The blue dress wasn't that bad." Younger Dawn said. She pulled the dress in question toward her. "I think this looks pretty good."

"You're eleven. What do you know about fashion, Butt Pain?" Buffy turned back to her closet. "This is like, my first time out with you guys, Dawn. I don't want to dress wrong."

"You're Buffy, you always dress wrong. People are used to it." Younger Dawn said, grinning from ear to ear. Dawn couldn't help giggle at her smaller self's joke.

"Mom! Tell Dawn to stop bugging me!" Buffy called at the top of her lungs. She shifted through some more outfits in the closet, clearly unsatisfied.

From downstairs came Joyce's voice. "Marie! Don't bug your sister!"

Buffy stopped her clothes-shuffling and looked over her shoulder. "She's calling you Marie?"

"It's what I wanted to be called, remember? Mom respects my choices. Not like some older sisters I could name." The younger girl stood. "I'm going to my room, since I'm clearly unwanted here."

After she'd gone, Dawn turned back to Buffy. "You could be nicer to her, you know."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Please. She's a pain. I mean, I love her, but you know how she is. How you were, I mean." She turned back to the closet.

Dawn sighed. She rose from where she was leaning on the dresser. "Here. Wear this..." Dawn pulled a pair of black slacks, followed by a blue button up shirt that Dawn suspected once belonged to Joyce. "Wear a white t-shirt under it you won't even have to button it all the way up. And those go-go boots. You can pull your hair up, and you'll look snazzy and fashionable."

"Hey, that's not bad. You've got good taste!"

"Yeah, well," Dawn replied. "I had a good teacher."

"Of course you did!" Buffy preened as she pulled the shirt she wore to school off, then her skirt, leaving her just in her bra and underwear. "I'm going to shower real quick. Did you want one after I'm done?"

"I'm fine. You go ahead." When Buffy left, Dawn took a moment to look around the room. Once upon a time, she had taken comfort here, lying in bed next to the recharging Buffybot, which wouldn't have a chance to be built if she was able to carry her plans through. Having her own house and everything was cool, but she missed living here. With that depressing thought in her head, Dawn started putting her sister's clothing away. She was still at it when Joyce walked in.

"So, this club you're going to. The Bronze, is it?"

"That's the one. It's just about the only place for kids to hang out at night." Dawn hung another shirt-skirt combination. "They have live music sometimes, and a jukebox. You can dance. They serve snacks. There are a couple of pool tables downstairs. Some video games upstairs."

"Do they serve alcohol at this club?"

"They do, in fact, but from what I remember they're also amazingly strict about checking your ID. I mean, the only time I ever saw them sell beer to a minor was Faith this one time, and that's only because the owner knew the score."

"Faith?" Joyce's eyebrow arched. "She was one of the Slayers?"

"Yeah. She came after Kendra, who came after Buffy. They never carded her for beer, sort of as a thank you. Of course, she didn't drink a lot. Just one or two a week or so." Dawn stopped, the last of Buffy's clothes in her hand. "Come to think of it, Faith never got carded for cigarettes, either."

She drank beer and smoked. Wow. Did I ever get to meet this Faith?"

"Yep. You actually liked her a lot." Dawn returned to her leaning post on Buffy's dresser. "You thought she was a bit rough around the edges, but that she was polite and friendly. She liked you a lot too. Thought you were classy."

Joyce sighed. "I know I'm being silly, but I worry."

"It's okay. You can worry. But we'll be all right. There's two of us, now. We'll take care of each other."

"Dawn..." Joyce began. "Do you think there's any chance that um, that Daw – I mean Marie. Is there a chance that Marie could be a Slayer too?"

Dawn's mouth quirked. "Honest opinion? Maybe."

"If she is, will you two..."

"If she is Called, we're likely going to be gone, Mom." Dawn took her mother's hand. "It's not a great thing to think about, but in that case, Willow and Xander and Giles will take care of her."

Joyce sighed. "I just worry that..."

"I know."

"What's going on? Everybody's glum!" Buffy came in wrapped in a towel.

"Mom was just feeling old and worrying." Dawn said with a smile. "She was being Mom and I was trying to reassure her. We'll leave you alone to get dressed."

"Okay, I'll be down shortly. You sure about that outfit?"

"You're going to look fine. Trust me." With that, Dawn led her mother downstairs.

Half an hour later, Buffy and Dawn were climbing into Dawn's car. As she opened the driver's door, Dawn paused and stared into the shadows.

"Everything all right?" Buffy asked from the passenger seat.

"I... Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought I... I thought there was something there." She sat down and started the car. "No big deal. Let's go. The guys are meeting us there."

As the car sped down Revello Drive, a tall, dark-haired man stepped out of the darkness. He'd watched as the Slayer had come out of her mother's house in the company of an unknown girl. The girl had looked right at the spot where he'd been standing, concealed by darkness, and for a moment the man had thought she was going to see him, but apparently she hadn't.

Still, their driving away like that was irritating. He had something he'd wanted to say to her.

"Well, crap." Angel shook his head. It was a long walk between the Slayer's house and the only club in town, and it wasn't one he was looking forward to.

**XxxxxxX**

"Who are these guys again?" Dawn asked, waving vaguely at the band that was tossing themselves about on the stage.

"The guy behind the bar said they were called Sprung Monkey or something." Willow sipped her Diet Coke. "I dunno if I like them much."

"Me either. How about you, Buffy?" Dawn grinned as Xander arrived with their drinks. "Thanks, honey-bear."

"Honey-bear? Oh God." Buffy rolled her eyes. "You two taste like diabetes, you know that?"

"You're just jealous that I got to him before you did." Dawn stuck out her tongue at Buffy, then turned to give Xander a kiss. "Don't listen to her. She's all alone and it's making her a cranky Buffy."

Xander held up a hand. "Right. I think I'm going to sit right here and not say anything about it, if you don't mind."

"Probably a good idea. Come on, Xander, let's go see if this music is danceable! Back in a little bit, guys!" Dawn dragged Xander onto the dance floor.

The two girls still sitting at the table watched the pair dance. Then both heaved almost identical sighs. Catching themselves at it, they both grinned.

"We're sort of pathetic, I guess." Buffy's smile was kind, but wistful. "I mean, look over there. Even Jesse is _trying._ Sure, he's trying with Cordelia and it's never going to work, but he's trying." From their table, they could see Jesse standing next to Cordy, be-bopping and being utterly shut down.

"Yeah. Always a bridesmaid." Willow looked around. "Lots of people here tonight."

"Yeah..." Buffy took a look for herself.

"You know what? I'm happy for Xander. I'm glad he has someone to smooch with."

"I hear a but coming."

"Well, you know." Willow shrugged. "I wouldn't mind if I had one too. Someone to smooch with."

"So why don't you?" Buffy took a sip of her soda. "You've got a lot going on. You're pretty, and you're smart."

"I thought I had one, or a potential one, but then found out he saw me as a sister, not a possible make-out partner." Willow looked glum for a moment, then pushed it down. She promised Dawn.

"Ouch." Buffy cocked her head to one side. "Xander or Jesse?"

"Xander." Willow sighed. "Was I that obvious?"

"No, I'm just smart like that." Buffy patted her on the hand. "Plenty of other fishes in the sea, though, right?"

"Yeah, but, um, it's not that easy. It's been a while since my last date. Like, eleven years."

"Your last date was when you were five?"

"Yeah. Xander went with me to Jesse's birthday party. There was cake!"

"So why no dates since then?"

"Well, when I'm near a boy I like, it's hard for me to say anything cool, or witty." Willow swallowed, calling up as much courage as she had to admit this. "Or, you know, at all. I can usually make some vowel sounds, and then I have to go away."

"Come on, you can't be that bad." Buffy gave her a kind smile.

"No, I can. I am. And, you know, boys are more interested in girls who can talk." Willow gave Buffy a long look. "I guess it's pretty easy for you."

"Oh yeah." Buffy said forlornly. "Real easy."

"No, I don't mean like that... I mean, you don't seem to shy around people, you know?"

"Well, no, I guess not. The Slayer thing gets in the way, mostly." Buffy gave the crowd another look. "But I do have a philosophy when – do you want to hear my philosophy when it comes to talking to people?"

"Sure!"

"Life is short."

"That's your philosophy?" Willow asked. "Life is short?"

"Yep. Might not be the most original philosophy but it has the benefit of being concise. And it's true; why should we waste time worrying if some guy is going to laugh at you? 'Cause tomorrow you might be dead. So seize the moment."

"Oh." Willow considered it.

"Look at them." Buffy pointed to where Dawn and Xander were on their third dance. To tell the truth, it seemed more like Dawn was dancing for both of them, but they were definitely having fun. "Do you think Dawn waited around, or do you think she went for what she wanted?"

"Oh, I know she went for what she wanted. She told me she was going to, after all." Willow sipped at her soda. "Seize the moment. I like that. It's nice."

Buffy drained he last of her drink. She took another look around, then turned back to Willow. "Ladies room?"

"Oh, it's in the back, over there on the far side of the pool tables."

"Gotcha. Be right back."

"Okay." As Buffy walked away, Willow took yet another look around at the crowd. "Seize the moment..."

**XxxxxxX**

Buffy made her way back to the table just in time to meet Xander and Dawn coming back from the dance floor. Willow was nowhere to be seen, and Jesse was still lost in the crowd, probably still trying to schmooze Cordelia.

"You guys have fun?" Buffy was all smiles. She hoped her sister had found a good one, and from her so-far limited exposure to Xander, it seemed like she had.

"Yeah, but now I'm sweaty, so time to sit." Dawn looked around. "Where's Will and Jesse?"

"Hmmm." Buffy started scanning the crowd, as did Xander.

"Willow's over there, dancing with some guy. Go Willow! Scoring at the Bronze! Work it, girlfriend!" Xander cheered his best friend from the sidelines. "And hey, there's Jesse, talking to that blonde girl! Two for two! Hey, you know, I think I've seen her around school. Or somewhere."

Dawn looked over at Willow and smiled at first, but then went still. "Oh no. The guy Willow is dancing with is a vampire." She looked over at Jesse. "And it gets worse, the blonde girl Jesse is talking to is also a vampire. That's Darla. Remember I was talking about the order of Aurelius?" Dawn looked closer at the vamp dancing with Willow. He looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where.

"How do you want to handle it?" Buffy pulled a stake out of her handbag and palmed it. They watched as the vampire led Willow from the dance-floor and into the shadows of the club away from the crowd.

"Buffy, you go separate Jesse from Darla. Remember, she's, like, really dangerous, but they're just talking so you can probably get her to back off." Dawn pulled her own stake. "Xander and I will pull the vamp away from Willow and outside where I can stake him."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Remember rule one, Buffy."

Buffy stopped and looked at her. "Rule one?"

Xander answered her. "Yeah. Don't die."

Dawn led Xander toward where she last saw Willow and the vampire. She paused at the base of the staircase, then walked up to the second floor. "Come on, they're up there."

"How can you tell?"

"I can smell them. Willow smells like a mix between strawberries and wood smoke, and when she's nervous she _really _smells like strawberries and wood smoke. It's coming from up here." They topped the stairs and looked around.

Xander pointed. "Over there." Sure enough, there was Willow, reclining on a couch next to the vampire. He wasn't that bad looking for a parasite, but his dress sense was lacking. It was obvious that he was still stuck in the 80s.

When they were close enough to be noticed, the vampire turned to Dawn and smiled. Willow followed the motion. "Dawn! Xander! Hey! This is my new friend Thomas! He's been telling me this funny story about his dog... and why are you guys looking at him like that?"

"Willow, he's a vampire." Dawn was staring at this Thomas hard enough that, had her eyes been laser-powered, a hole a foot wide would have been burned through him. "You need to come over here with us, Willow."

Willow glared at Thomas and scrambled away. Thomas, on the other hand, just held his hands up. "Hey, all I did was dance with her. I wasn't going to drink her, I promise. I need to tell you something anyway, Slayer, and figured this was a good way to get your attention." He smiled at Willow, and amazingly enough it seemed an honest smile. "And hey, she's not that bad a dancer."

"Okay, you want to tell me something. Spill it."

"Not here. Let's go somewhere more private." Again, he held up his hands. I promise, I'm not going to attack. I heard your offer at Willy's bar the other day. I've got something you might be interested in, and I figure getting one of those red cards from you would be cool."

"So that's why you were familiar. All right." She turned to Xander. "Xand, I'm going outside to talk to this guy. I'll be back soon. You two wait here. If you see Buffy, tell her where I've gone, okay?"

Thomas stood. "Trust me, Slayer, this is the real stuff." He led the way down the stairs and out the back. Once in the alleyway, the vampire took a position that didn't corner Dawn, and didn't make her feel trapped, and kept a safe distance away from her, as well.

"Okay, so we're out here and it's more quiet. Damn I hate that fucking band, don't you?" Thomas said. "Seriously, if it wouldn't get me staked, I think I'd go in and drain every one of those assholes."

"Yeah, well, I agree with you, except the draining. No draining."

"Sure, whatever you want." Thomas grinned at her. "Listen, this is big. The head honcho vampire in town is a guy we all call the Master. He sired my sire's sire's sire. Anyway, he's got this inner circle -"

"The Aurelians?"

"Yeah. I guess technically I'm one of them, but trust me, the only ones who really count are the first and second generations. Darla, this shithead named Colin. This asshole named Luke. The rest of us, it's all 'tote that barge, lift that bail' always being shoved around and told what to do. I'm tired of it."

**XxxxxxX**

Buffy, sporting a huge bruise on her jaw and tugging a visibly bleeding Jesse behind her, almost literally ran into Xander and Willow at the bottom of the stairs. Jesse was looking woozy, and one hand was pressing a blood-stained bar towel to his neck.

"Buffy! Are you okay?" Willow was staring at the shoe-print that marred Buffy's white shirt, which was clearly visible now that her blue button up had its buttons torn off.

"Where's Dawn?" She asked. "We need to get Jesse to a doctor."

"Jesse! Here. I'll take him" Xander put his arm under Jesse's shoulder. "Dawn went out that way, with the vampire." He pointed toward the hall that lead to the back exits.

"Right. You guys head for Dawn's car. I'll go make sure she's okay and we'll meet you around front." Xander and Willow nodded. They went one way, Buffy went the other.

**XxxxxxX**

"Okay, so?" Dawn twirled her stake in her hand. Thomas seemed to get the message.

"Right, so anyway, tomorrow night there's this thing happening. The Master, see, back in the 20s, he had this rivalry going with this bad ass sorcerer, and the guy trapped the Master down in this hole under the city." Thomas said. "Anyway, tomorrow the Master is doing this ritual thing that'll free him."

"What's the ritual involve? Do you know?"

"Not exactly. I know they're planning on killing a bunch of people, though, and somehow all those deaths will make the Master strong enough to bust out of the sorcerer's trap."

Dawn nodded. "And where's this going to happen?"

"Here." Thomas pointed to the Bronze. "Darla figured there's be a huge crowd of people just waiting to be killed, so they're doing it here."

"Right, of course they are." Dawn reached into her back pocket and pulled out a red card. She held it out, but not directly to Thomas. "Anything else? No? You know, if I see you here tomorrow, I'll stake your ass and this card won't help you."

"No, no, I got it. I'm not going to be anywhere near here tomorrow. You can trust me."

"All right. She held out the card and the vampire took it. "Hit the road. You're banned from the Bronze. I see you here again, I'll rough you up and toss you out on your ass. I see you here twice, I'll be tossing you out with a dustpan."

"No problem. Nice doing business with you. Oh, and tell Willow I really had a good time dancing with her."

"Don't even think about..." Dawn took a step toward him.

"No! No, not at all! I'm serious! She's a great dancer! Cute too. Too bad she has a pulse, you know?" He faded into the shadow.

"Perfect." Dawn turned back toward the Bronze, only to crash into a tall, imposing figure that seemed to melt out of the shadows in front of her. She fell backwards, landing on her behind. The stake she'd been holding bounced away and out of sight.

"Who are you?" The shadow asked her. "What do you want with the Slayer?"

"What? Angel?" Dawn asked. It took a moment, but she did eventually recognize his voice.

"How do you know my name?" He took a step forward and growled at her. "What are you planning?! Answer me!"

"What? I'm not planning anything." She scrambled backward, away from him, trying to get enough room to get back on her feet, but he kept encroaching on her.

"I saw you hand something to that vampire! You were with the Slayer all night! What are you planning on doing to her?" Dawn managed to get up on one knee when Angel grabbed her by the arm and swung her bodily into the side of the Bronze. He wasn't sparing effort, and she felt her breath being driven away by the impact.

"Wait..." she wheezed. It was weak, and she tried to bend over to catch her breath, but Angel yanked her up and slammed her back into the wall. Her eyes bulged as he grabbed her around the throat and lifted her, bodily, into the air. Her feet kicked at nothing.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her!" Dawn's entire world collapsed into a small, thin, dimly lit tubed as she fought for a breath. Just a sip of air was all she wanted. She frantically beat on his arm, clawed at it, but nothing was giving. She couldn't break his grip. Everything went dark...

And then suddenly Dawn was on the ground, gasping. Pulling huge buckets-full of air into her lungs. Everything was still blurry, but the world was coming back, slowly. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes. Xander was kneeling next to her head, smiling down at her.

"She's breathing again. I think she's going to be okay." Xander said. There was a small crowd of people behind him. Buffy stood to one side, and she recognized the bartender, and some of the people who had been dancing.

"Wha – What's going on?" Her voice was small and rough and it hurt to talk. She couldn't figure out why everyone was here. For that matter, where was here?"

"It's okay, Dawn. There's an ambulance coming. Don't worry." Buffy knelt down and took her hand.

"Am'blance?"

"Yeah, you scared us. You weren't breathing there, for a couple of minutes. Xander was fantastic." Buffy was crying. Why was Buffy crying? "He did CPR until you started breathing again. The owner called an ambulance. They'll be here soon."

"Wi'?"

"Willow? She took Jesse to the emergency room. I gave her your car keys, sorry." Xander kissed her hand.

"S'oh." Dawn coughed, then coughed again. She rolled over on her side and pulled her legs up, and then coughed some more. When she rolled back over, it was actually easier to talk.

"Wha' happn t' Angel?"

"Who? Oh, you mean the vampire?" At Dawn's nod, Buffy grinned down at her. "Don't worry about him. I staked him from behind. He's totally dust. I'm more concerned about you. He almost choked you out completely, Dawn. But it's okay. Xander was the hero this time."

Xander kissed her forehead. "Yeah, he can't hurt you anymore, Dawn."

"He's dust."

**XxxxxxX**

**Author's Note the First:** _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ is owned by Warner Brothers in association with Mutant Enemy Productions. _L.A. Law_ is owned by 20th Century Fox Television.

**Author's Note the Second:** Some of the dialogue in this chapter is either directly copied from or derived from dialog appearing in the pilot episode of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer, _"Welcome to the Hellmouth". Other lines of dialog are derived from the 2002 film adaptation of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pierce, and my dear friend Luis Guzman, who once asked me, "Jack, why don't you ever put me in one of your stories?" The use of one of his lines of dialog is the closest I've ever come.


End file.
